When Worlds Collide
by ProudHufflepuff42
Summary: Eight selected teenagers have woken up to find out that they are now in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter-without Harry Potter. Can they take the steps needed to restore the timeline?
1. Eddie

Eddie Pattinson was a normal boy of 13. He played baseball, and read the _Harry Potter_ series. That was about it. He got decent grades in school, and prized being a Hufflepuff above all else.

He had auburn hair, green eyes, and stood about 5 foot 5. One night, as usual, he was re-reading the Harry Potter series.

He had just gotten to the part where Harry discovered he was a wizard when he decided that he had read long enough, put the book on his bedside table, and gone to bed, still thinking of Hogwarts, and owls, and Quidditch…

A/N Don't worry, I'm not deleting this one.


	2. The Bringer of Balance

Eddie woke up in a dark, unfamiliar room. It reminded him of a laser tag arena, but without all the neon lights flashing. His first rational thought was being aware that seven other people were in the room with him. All were staring at one another in confusion. There were four boys and four girls. For several long moments he stared. All around him it was black, except for a light illuminating the eight of them. Eventually, he shifted back to reality.

"Wh-where am I? Who are you all?" Eddie blurted, looking around him. The last thing he remembered was the warmth of his pillow by his cheek and thoughts zooming past his mind about the Wizarding World, as they slowly became fainter and unreal, and he drifted off. Finding himself in a completely new surrounding, with strangers all around him suddenly found him completely numb. Gradually, if not suddenly, panic started rising in his chest, and possibilities raced in his head, each one more terrifying than the previous.

He took a step back as he noticed a girl standing next to him, almost as frozen as he had been a moment ago.

"Let me tell you I'm not af-afraid!" He heard a male voice say, but the quiver completely gave away what its owner really felt. Eddie's eyes darted about the dark room, trying to make out the smallest sign of why he was here, and what this place was. He heard the shuffle of a few feet, and a few more panicky mumbles.

One of the boys, noticing that everyone was as ignorant of the situation as the other, ventured to voice a question.

"Does anybody know what this place is, or why we are here?" His voice did reflect his nervousness, but did not quiver. Another boy was looking skeptically around, doubting that he could have actually ended up in the middle of nowhere with seven random kids. Eddie felt his breath quickening as his heart was beating hard against his chest. He could have sworn it rose up a few inches to reach his throat.

At that precise moment, a voice boomed, reverberating around the blackness.

"Greetings. It is I, the Bringer of Balance." This immediately sent them into a frenzy, trying to decipher where the voice had come. Soon, a man stepped out- no, floated out, like a ghost, from a wall they were facing. "You eight have been chosen for the simple reason of each male and each female belonging to each Hogwarts house."

"But, why?" a brown haired boy with glasses asked. "Why are we here? It doesn't make any sense at all, and us being transported to who knows where and.." His voice trailed off as he struggled to comprehend what was happening.

"Relax, Mr. Hewett." The boy looked shocked at the mention of his name. "Yes, I am aware of all eight of your names. You have simply been teleported to an alternate universe. Your timeline has been frozen, and you will return to your normal world upon restoring the timeline in Harry Potter's universe, for something terrible has happened. You see, on that night in 1981 when Lord Voldemort murdered Lily and James Potter, Voldemort's curse rebounded which did kill Harry despite Lily's love magic. Now, you must fill Harry's shoes and defeat the Dark Lord yourself."

Eddie was still frozen, mouth agape. How could he be in the same universe as Harry Potter? For years he had yearned, dreamed, fantasized, to be among the students of Hogwarts, and now it seemed like he finally would be. Or was he dreaming? He pinched himself. Nope, he wasn't.

Not fazed in the slightest by the group's wonder, the Bringer of Balance answered, "You arrive in separate rooms in the Leaky Cauldron pub at Diagon Alley, on July 31, 1991, holding a Hogwarts letter in hand as well as five hundred Galleons for your school shopping. And before you go," he added, "Translatio magica!"

They looked stunned for a second, before the Bringer of Balance explained, "That spell should have given you roughly the amount of magic an average first year has."

"This is some sort of joke," Sean Stephens scoffed. "Or you've kidnapped me, in which case, you'll regret it you sick-"

Glaring at him, the Bringer of Balance boomed again. "This isn't a game! These universes are on constant loop, over and over again, the timeline repeats itself, until errors are made, in which case I have to enlist the ones most knowledgeable, most qualified, most worthy, in my view, of taking on the task of fixing the reality, as I cannot interfere, for I must watch other timelines!" He paused, and lowered his voice. "It appears that I chose wrong…"

Sean quickly realized his mistake. "I- I'm sorry, Mr. Bringer, sir, I won't doubt you again."

"One more thing," Natalie asked. "How did Voldemort kill Harry, exactly? I thought love magic was supposed to be unstoppable- that was the main point of the series."

"Voldemort used an unusual amount of anger in his spell, which overpowered Lily's magic. I doubt we should see that strength ever again." He then opened a portal and told them to jump through.

"Well," Eddie remarked. "I still don't believe this is happening." Almost shaking, he stepped through the portal. And, one by one, they were off through it, off to a world they had all dreamed of visiting, and off on an adventure none of them would forget.

When Eddie arrived in the Leaky Cauldron he immediately met the others outside. The doors opened into a circular room which Eddie assumed served as a common area. Chipped wooden walls and dusty windows notwithstanding, he had an odd feeling of warmth and welcome. As the Bringer of Balance had told them, they indeed had a Hogwarts letter and a bag of five hundred Galleons.

Once downstairs, they managed to tap the right brick to open Diagon Alley. When the bricks were drawn back, Eddie's mouth widened. It was like the theme park he had gone to once, in Florida, but so much better. It felt… oddly real to him. He could only imagine what it had looked like, reading the series, and the movies didn't do the Alley enough justice. The cobbled street seemed to twist and turn forever until eventually it vanished. Shops lined the street and, passing through them, hundreds of witches and wizards were seen, all talking, doing their daily work. It was beautiful. His heart swelled with unexplainable joy. It would be quite fair to compare it to having three birthdays and five Christmases come at once. Throughout the time at Diagon Alley, he had the involuntary twitching of his cheek muscles that plastered a charmed smile on his face. He felt he needed nothing more. Stepping into the Harry Potter world was the dream that nagged him even though the rational part of his mind tried to neutralise it, and this event seemed to silence that half of his mind eternally.

They went their separate ways when they got inside. Eddie started with his books at Flourish and Blotts. Like most shops in the Alley, Flourish and Blotts was old and dusty. However, also like most shops in the Alley, it carried a certain charm to it. Brushing the titles with his hand, Eddie was lost in wonder for quite a few minutes before he realized he had shopping to do. Checking the list, he quickly scanned the names of the spellbooks he had to buy, smiling slightly at one in particular. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which had gotten a loosely based movie adaptation a few years ago that was Eddie's all time favorite film.

However, he made the foolish mistake of trying to carry all his books at once and ended up dropping them. Hurriedly, he began picking them up, drawing the attention of a blond-haired girl who noticed and immediately started helping him. Eddie realized this was Hannah Abbott, a Hufflepuff from Harry's year. When all the books were in a bag Hannah had brought over, Eddie thanked her.

"No problem," she said. "The name's Hannah, by the way, Hannah Abbott."

Obviously Eddie already knew this, but didn't tell her that. He instead turned the conversation to Hannah's robes.

"Hey, there's no House emblem on your robes, are you a first-year too?"

"Oh, yeah," she said looking down. "I'm hoping for either Gryffindor or Hufflepuff, how about you?"

"Hufflepuff, all the way," Eddie said. He was not shy about his Hufflepuff pride. "House of the kind, just, and loyal."

"Well, I hope you get it!" Hannah said in reply.

"Thanks. The name's Eddie Pattinson." He smiled and left, and she returned to her own booklist.

When he met up with the others, they talked for a bit about their personal lives and what they were doing before they ended up here.

Eddie said that he played baseball, so did Nathan Turner. Victoria Parker played hockey, and Sean played tennis.

Eddie, Nathan, Lily Jackson, and Victoria were American,

Tom, Sean, Natalie Rogers and Claire Davidson were British.

"This is gonna be exciting!" Claire bust out, "I'm just so, so hyped, we're gonna live out Harry's life and we get to be friends with Ron and Hermione and Ginny and Luna and-" at which point she burst into unintelligible squealing.

"Yeah, I can't wait either. Hey, what's the Daily Prophet gonna do if they can't pin Sirius' escape on him coming after Harry?" Tom said.

"Dunno," Nathan said. "Guess we'll just wait and see." He, like many of them, was very excited for whatever was to come, no matter where it lead.

"So what were you all doing when you transported into that room?" Lily asked. "I was just about to take a math test I didn't study for, so that's a relief."

Their answers ranged from watching movies, to being bored to death in class, to, in Eddie's case, reading Harry Potter.

"Hey, wasn't Malfoy there on the same day as Harry?" Tom asked.

"Yeah, I saw him," Claire said. "He was with his mother and father."

"Talk to him at all?"

"No. He's a git."

"Anyone else there?" asked Natalie.

Eddie said he saw Hannah, and Victoria saw Dean, but that was it.

"Well," Natalie said, "I guess we'll see each other over the next month, but if we don't, do you all want to take the same compartment on the journey to Hogwarts?"

There was a general murmur of assent. They bade good bye and returned to their rooms.

Eddie couldn't sleep at all that night. He stayed wide awake, watching the people below, waiting...wondering...

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Eddie saw the others very rarely over the next month. The one he really got to know was Nathan. In addition to playing baseball, Nathan was also into Minecraft, the only other video game that Eddie really played apart from MLB The Show. Nathan however, was a Boston sports fan, and Eddie a fan of the New York sports teams. The cities' teams had a big rivalry, especially in baseball (with the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees) and in football (with the New England Patriots and New York Giants)

When September 1st arrived, they all met on the platform and went through the barrier together. Again, like his compatriots, Eddie was overblown with shock and amazement. Diagon Alley was great, but actually running through the brick wall between platforms nine and ten? That beat the Alley by a long shot, and it wasn't even close.

This is surreal, he was thinking. After having his suitcase loaded, he stepped onto the train, passing slowly through it to take in the atmosphere.

Somehow, they all managed to squeeze into one compartment. "So, what do you guys want to do?" Victoria asked.

No one really had any ideas, until Tom spoke up, "I say we game plan. What are we gonna do knowing what we know?"

"I'd say don't tell anyone unless we really have to," Sean replied, "Dumbledore would be on that list."

"As per individual cases," Tom went on, "I'd say no going after Quirrell until he goes for the stone, but I can't remember what night that is, and as for the Chamber of Secrets….oh no. None of us can get in. We don't speak Parseltongue. We could try that rasping thing that Ron did…." he put his hand on his chin in a thinking position. "Hmm….What if we….I've got it! Just don't write in the diary, no, we can't tell Ginny not to. Wait, duh, we put it in another common room so she can't steal it. Prisoner of Azkaban we can't do much, as that plot really relied on the Trio, so Goblet of Fire, hopefully, none of us get our names put in the Goblet. Order of the Phoenix, I dunno if Voldy's gonna return, so we'll have to wait and see, same for the last two books."

Two seconds' ringing silence followed that statement, then small "Wows" broke out among the other seven.

Tom crossed his arms confidently. He was, after all, a straight-A student in school. His friends called him the "boy Hermione" because he was smart and studious, like the buck-toothed Muggle-born, but got sorted into Gryffindor on Pottermore.

The silence continued for a while until Claire burst out, "Hey! I forgot! I found a deck of Self-Shuffling Playing Cards in Diagon Alley, I forgot they were in my pocket, wanna play?"

"Sure, it's not like we've got anything else to do," said Sean, speaking for the first time.

She laid the cards out, and while they were shuffling themselves, they debated on which game to play.

"We could play Trash," Eddie suggested, "that's a favorite of mine, or B.S."

"What's B.S.?" Natalie asked.

Eddie began to explain but was interrupted by the arrival of the food trolley. Five minutes later, when everyone was laden with Pumpkin Pasties and Bertie Botts' Every Flavor Beans, he began again.

"Oooh, that sounds fun!" Lily said, "I'm a bad liar though, I'm not sure I would do well."

"Aaah, give it a try," Eddie encouraged her. "First time for everything."

"You're right," she consented, and they began to play.

Nathan ended up winning, but it was a close, competitive game all around.

They played a few more rounds, nobody won twice.

As the skies turned gradually from blue to purple to black, Eddie looked out the window. How long had he fantasized about getting his letter, going to Hogwarts, practicing Charms and Transfiguration, playing Quidditch? Probably since the age of nine when he picked up Sorcerer's Stone for the first time. Watching the trees flick past the window, he desperately tried to calm his nerves, biting his lip, as anxious as a child on Christmas morning.

And before they knew it, word had spread that they had better change into their robes. There was an empty compartment right next to theirs, so they decided to have all the boys go and change in true gentlemanly fashion, moving so the girls didn't have to.

And soon, they arrived in Hogsmeade Station. Stepping off the train, Eddie wanted to run to the castle, but he told himself he must wait, for it would come soon enough. After all, patience was a Hufflepuff value.

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A/N-For those of you who don't know, B.S. is a game where you divide the card deck up as even as possible. Whoever has the ace of spades puts it down face up, and play continues to the left or right, (your preference). After the ace of spades, players put down cards in numerical order (2-10, Jack, King, Queen, ace again, and so on in repeat) face down, while announcing what card you are supposed to put down, regardless if you have it. You are allowed to put down multiple. If someone calls B.S., you flip the card or cards you placed over. If you were lying, you take the whole deck. If you were correct, the person who called B.S. takes the deck. Whoever gets to no cards wins.


	3. The Sorting Ceremony

When they got to the station, they got off the train, and started making their way to the boats. It wasn't far before they heard a familiar cry.

"Firs' years! Firs' years this way! Follow me ter the boats!

"And there's Hagrid!" Eddie said.

"We can't tell him we know him," whispered Tom.

Although they knew what to expect from Hagrid's appearance, they were partly amazed at his sheer size. Width of five men together and the height of three, he had a fiercely entangled black beard and hair to match the colour, through which they could see his warm, beady black eyes. The half-giant gamekeeper of Hogwarts led them down to the lake, away from what Eddie and the rest knew as thestral-pulled carriages.

"No more'n four ter a boat!" Hagrid hollered. They decided to have the boys in one boat and the girls in the other. When all the boats were full with excited and nervous students, and Hagrid had occupied one full boat, he bellowed "Righ', ready, then? FORWARD!"

At once, all the boats began to move forward, led by Hagrid's at the beginning.

As they were sailing, something from the water arose to catch their awe.

"Woah there's the squid!" Sean exclaimed.

Sure enough, the famed Giant Squid of the Black Lake was above the water's surface, and then drenched a boat in water.

"Aha, a Dennis Creevey moment!" Eddie muttered to Sean.

"Hold on, now, yeh'll be able ter see the castle in a moment," he shouted again. The tension and excitement in the air rose tenfold, and Eddie could feel the sense of anticipation bubbling in his chest. He saw people wringing their hands, simply frozen, or looking around rapidly.

It took a moment more before the magnificent Hogwarts castle slowly loomed into view. There was a series of gasps from the boats, as every single eye turned towards the castle. Eddie felt a now often sense of disbelief wash over him. After months and months of dreaming and longing, he had set foot in the Wizarding World. It was an impossibility. And Eddie knew, as he took in the breathtaking view of the castle, that he was probably one of the luckiest people in the world.

Soon the boats reached the bank. Hagrid got out first, motioning and helping the other first years to get out too, and began walking towards the castle. Being busy in taking in the majesty of the castle, nobody really was talking. As they reached the stone staircase outside the castle, Hagrid led them up to the giant door and knocked three times on it. Almost immediately, the door swung open, and there stood a strict looking figure that Eddie recognised to be that of Professor McGonagall

"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," Hagrid said gruffly.

"Thank you Hagrid, I will take them from here."

She opened the door wider and led them all in, and made them follow her down a passage flanked by stone walls, which had torches clinging to it, to light the path. They followed her into an empty chamber off the hall. "Now, in a few moments you will pass through these doors and be sorted into your Houses. These are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Your Houses here will be something like your family here at Hogwarts. Your triumphs will earn you points, while any rule breaking will lose you points. At the end of the year, the House with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor indeed. As I said, the Sorting ceremony will take place in a few moments. I suggest you all try to smarten yourselves up while you are waiting." With that, she went into the Great Hall, leaving the group with feelings of tension and worry.

There was a loud whoosh from overhead, which told Eddie that the ghosts had arrived. He saw the Fat Friar, Nearly Headless Nick, the Bloody Baron, and the Gray Lady all swoop in and past them into the Great Hall, through the old oak doors.

"Which spell do you think we'll need?" Hermione asked. "I've learned plenty of them so far, it's just I can't think of any spell we will need to use."

"Maybe it's not a spell," Eddie said vaguely, playing along, "Maybe it's like...pull a rabbit out of a hat. I don't know. I have a feeling it's got something to do with hats."

"That's nothing more than a mere parlor trick," drawled a sly voice from the railing, "You muggle-borns really are dumb."

Eddie, along with Nathan and Natalie who were standing nearby, whipped his head around. They were staring into the pale, pointed face of Draco Malfoy.

"So you obviously know what it's going to be, right?" Eddie asked with unnecessary politeness.

"Why don't you tell us, Draco, if you're so smart?"

"I'm not telling you. It's a surprise." He strolled back to Crabbe and Goyle. At that moment, Professor McGonagall reappeared.

"First years, follow me."

And was it a sight to behold. The floating candles, the endless bewitched ceiling, the long gold elegant dining tables and the Sorting Hat sitting quietly on its stool at the head of the Hall. It was everything Eddie had dreamed of and imagined.

"See, I knew it had something to do with hats! Take that, Malfoy!"

The pale-haired future Slytherin didn't even turn his head. Everyone was soon assembled, neatly standing in a line, and looking around nervously.

At that moment, the Sorting Hat stirred. A rip near the brim opened like a mouth, and to the awe of most of the first years, began to sing:

"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty, but don't judge on what you see.

I'll eat myself if you can find a smarter hat than me.

You can keep your bowlers black, your top hats sleek and tall,

for I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat and I can cap them all.

There's nothing hidden in your head that the Sorting Hat can't see,

so try me on and I'll tell you where you ought to be.

You might belong in Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart,

their daring, nerve, and chivalry, set Gryffindors apart;

You might belong in Hufflepuff, where they are just and loyal.

Those patient Hufflepuffs are true and unafraid of toil;

Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw if you're a ready mind,

where those of wit and learning will always find their kind;

Or perhaps in Slytherin, you'll make your real friends,

those cunning folk use any means to achieve their ends.

So put me on!

Don't be afraid!

And don't get in a flap!

You're in safe hands (though I have none)

For I'm a thinking cap!"

Eddie clapped with the whole hall at the last word. Professor McGonagall now walked to the spot where the now still hat was. She was holding a long roll of parchment which Eddie knew had the names of every first year in the school.

"Now, when I call your name, you will step forward and place the Sorting Hat on your head, and be sorted into your house."

She rolled down the list. It extended to the feet of the first years.

"Abbott, Hannah!"

The girl Eddie met in Diagon Alley stepped forward, put on the hat, and a few moments later the hat shouted,

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

And so the sorting ceremony continued. The first of the "foreigners" to get sorted was Claire, who went to Slytherin as was expected by her friends. Then went Tom, to Gryffindor, Lily, to Hufflepuff, Victoria, to Ravenclaw, and then it was Eddie's turn.

Eddie didn't have the sense that every eye was on him like Harry did, but he did feel a sense of immense pressure.

He took the Sorting Hat, and placed it on his head. The hat fell over his eyes.

A voice spoke in his head:

"Well, you're an interesting case, aren't you? There's something with you, particularly, but I can't figure it out. You seem destined for Hufflepuff, and that's what you want, oh yes, but there's something missing… oh well… better be HUFFLEPUFF!"

A roar of cheers erupted from the Hufflepuff table, led by Cedric Diggory, only in his fourth year then. Eddie smiled at Cedric, but it was a sad smile as he remembered his destiny. He hoped that with Harry gone, he gets to live a full life. He turned his attention back to the Sorting.

There were three people left from their little group when Eddie was done. Natalie went to Gryffindor, Sean to Slytherin, and Nathan to Ravenclaw.

Finally, the Sorting was finished. Dumbledore got up from the High Table to speak.

"Welcome, welcome, to another year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our feast, I would like to say a few words:

Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!

Thank you!"

Everyone applauded, a few exchanged confused, and even bamboozled glances, wondering if this was some code language. But soon, the headmaster sat down, and their attention was diverted to the aromatic loads of food magically appearing on the table.

"So, um, hello everyone," Eddie said.

"Hello," Justin Finch-Fletchley said. "Justin Finch-Fletchley. Who are you?"

"Eddie Pattinson."

"What's up with your accent?" said Justin.

"I'm from America," Eddie replied. "I don't know why I came here instead of Ilvermorny, but I'm happy for it."

"Oh, I remember you," Hannah spoke up. "I met you in Diagon Alley when you dropped your books."

Eddie gave a nervous smile, unsure why she chose to recollect that particular embarrassing memory out loud.

Ernie MacMillan was the next to introduce himself. "Now, are you a pureblood, half blood, or Muggle born?" he asked. "Not that it matters of course, but I'm always curious. I'm a pureblood myself."

"Actually, I don't know," Eddie said, thinking fast. "My parents died when I was very young, I grew up in an orphanage with Lily here."

"Ah, pleased to meet you too, Lily," said Ernie, offering his hand pompously. "I take it you don't know either?"

"No," she said.

"What about you, Hannah?" Eddie asked.

"Half-blood," she answered, "even though my family's part of the sacred Twenty Eight,"

"What's that?" Eddie asked.

"Oh, this guy in the nineteen thirties found the twenty eight families that were still pureblood, so I guess I have a Muggle relative somewhere between then and now."

"That's cool."

Too soon the dinner and desserts were gone, and Dumbledore was standing again.

"Ahem! Just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start of term notices to give you."

"First years please note, that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils-"

'Except for detention,' Eddie thought.

"-and a few of our more experienced students would take care to remember that as well." And Eddie saw his twinkling blue eyes flicker towards the Weasley twins.

"I have also been asked by Mr. Filch to remind you for what he told me was the seven hundred and sixty second time in the past ten years that no magic should be used in the corridors between classes. A minor change, beginning this year, is that all classes will be held with another house.

"Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of term. Anyone wishing to play for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch. A reminder.

"This year, first years will be able to play Quidditch for the first time in nearly a century. I shall talk to the staff and find out if we can provide, er, better brooms, as I've had dozens of complaints recently.

Eddie's mouth dropped. Whoa, he thought. He hadn't been expecting this. That meant he could play Quidditch in first year instead of second! He thought he'd try for Chaser, seeing as they already had a Seeker in Cedric. He turned and asked Lily what she thought she'd do.

"Commentate," she said, "I'm a huge sports nerd, even though I don't play much, I love statistics."

"And please note that this year, the third floor corridor is out of bounds to anyone who does not wish to die a most painful death.

There were a few nervous giggles, and many frowns. The statement had caused a burst of confused murmurs throughout the Great Hall. And Eddie was hit with the reality of his real task. There was a strange, mixed sense of nervous excitement and fear that slowly became more real in his chest, as he thought about what all he might have to face. He slowly ventured to glance at the other seven, hoping that he was not the only one worried.

And then he felt a rush of affection for Harry, for he was sure that Harry would have felt a hundred times more strongly what he was feeling at that instant, when Harry heard the prophecy from Dumbledore's memory. He tried to shake off all these thoughts at once, and reassured himself that there were eight of them, and that there was plenty of time to dwell on this.

"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song! Everyone pick your favorite tune and here we go!"

Obviously, no one knew Hedwig's Theme at the Hufflepuff table except for him and Lily. So, naturally, Eddie decided to pick that tune to sing to. And maybe, due to his enthusiasm, he sung it a little too loud.

"That was quite the performance," Hannah said after Fred and George, the last to finish, concluded. "What song did you use?"

"Oh, a little tune I picked up in the States," Eddie told her, "Forgot what it was called."

After dinner, they all decided to meet up after classes tomorrow and tell Dumbledore exactly who they were, where they came from, and what they knew.

When Eddie and Lily arrived at the common room, the prefect, Terry Strickland, introduced himself, and demonstrated how to open the common room entrance.

He tapped his wand on a barrel two from the bottom in the middle of the second row, and then climbed through the now opened barrel. It was a sloping, earthy passage that traveled upwards a little ways until they reached the Hufflepuff common room. The first thing that Eddie noticed was that it was full of plants.

'I knew Hufflepuff was connected with Herbology, I didn't know they were this connected,' Eddie thought. Plants lined the walls and ivy vines weaved their ways through the stone walls.

As Eddie walked through the common room and was looking at the furnished wooden tables and comfortable couches, he noticed another feature when an ivy vine touched his head. He looked up and saw a bevy of plants hanging off the ceiling.

Hogwarts really is amazing, he thought. Eddie made his way down the hallway to the dormitories. Because the Hufflepuff common room wasn't in a tower like Gryffindor or Ravenclaw, it was a hallway and not a staircase. This too resembled the Hufflepuff House's love for plants, as it was a carpeted floor, but the walls were made of solid earth. He didn't have to go far as the first door on his right read FIRST YEARS. Replicating Helga Hufflepuff's famous hospitality, there was a bathroom facing each dormitory door. Eddie was too tired and exhilarated from the day's events to engage in any more form of conversation, so when his head hit his black and yellow pillow, he was asleep.


	4. Revelations

Disclaimer-JK Rowling owns Harry Potter. I don't own anything from this fantastic universe.

The next morning Eddie pinched himself one more time to make absolute, one hundred percent sure that he was not dreaming. In fact, he was indeed in the Hufflepuff dormitory. He then smiled inwardly, bliss and anticipation bubbling in his chest, as thoughts rushed into his head about all he was going to do. He again brushed away the tinge of nervous fear, not allowing it to spoil this fantastic morning.

He put on his Hufflepuff robes for the first time (finally, not just a Halloween costume) brushed his teeth, and made his way down to breakfast.

Outside the Great Hall, he met up with the others, and they talked for a bit, agreeing to go down to Dumbledore's office after classes. They split after that and each pair went to their own house table.

"Who're they?" Ernie MacMillan asked when Eddie and Lily had sat down and started munching on toast.

"Those are our friends," Lily began, "each from different houses."

"You're friends with Slytherins?" Ernie asked.

"Yeah. No problem with that, right?" Eddie asked.

"None indeed!" said a rather cheery voice. Eddie looked up to find Professor Sprout, timetables in her arms. "Now here are your schedules for this year, I do find they come in rather handy. You have me this afternoon in greenhouse one." She left to sit at the High Table with the rest of the staff. Eddie looked down and saw he had some classes with every house, which pleased him but disgusted Ernie.

"Let's hope your friends are alright, I can't stand that Malfoy bloke."

Their first class was double Charms with the Gryffindors. He saw Tom and Natalie get up from the Gryffindor table, took a bite of his waffle, and got up.

They soon realized that despite their expansive knowledge of the series that they had no idea where the Charms classroom actually was. They figured they'd eventually find it, and they were right. However, they only just barely made it to class. Walking into the room was another jaw-dropping experience, one of many they had and would have that first week. To think they were actually taking classes at _Hogwarts_ of all places. Tiny Professor Flitwick took attendance, and began the lesson, which was on Lumos, the Wand-Lighting Charm. Out of the four, Natalie got her wand first, and then Tom. Eddie was last, but managed it at least six times before the class ended.

After that they had their first break period, which they had once a day except Wednesdays, on which they had double Transfiguration and double Potions. Those classes were only held once a week, the others were held twice. They met up with the Ravenclaw and Slytherin facet of their group, and found out they suffered through double History of Magic. Sean was almost falling asleep.

"So, how was it?" Eddie asked him, smirking.

"Absolutely illuminating," Sean said sarcastically. "The Gargoyle Revolution of 1911 was so interesting."

"Well, it was cool when Binns came through the wall at the start of class," Claire said, yawning.

After that, Eddie and Lily followed Claire and Sean to Herbology, where Professor Sprout guided them through the different plants they would be learning about. They spent much of that first lesson taking notes on these plants. When the day was over, they met up again (Natalie, Tom, Nathan, and Victoria had Defense Against the Dark Arts) and set off for Dumbledore's office.

When they reached the place, they attempted to guess the password for a long while until Lily found "Chocolate Frog" and the gargoyles sprung apart.

Eddie could tell that each one of them was as nervous as the other. They would, in another few moments, be meeting Albus Dumbledore, the greatest sorcerer of all time. His hands trembled slightly as thoughts driven by nerves rushed past his head. Would they be able to communicate the truth effectively? What if Dumbledore simply thought it was a practical joke? What if they missed some vital point? Beyond all this he had a heightened feeling of excitement. He had dreamt for years of having at least a glimpse of the Wizarding World and of as much as seeing Dumbledore, but the prospect of now actually meeting and talking to the great wizard sent up jolts of electricity through his spine, and he shuddered involuntarily.

They climbed the long, winding staircase until they reached the brass griffin knocker. Eddie took a deep breath, and knocked three times on the old oak door. All eight of them were biting their lips, wondering if the headmaster was even in his study at the moment.

"Enter," they were greeted with.

To their immense surprise, McGonagall was also in Dumbledore's office.

"...the Gringotts break-in might have something to do with the-"

"Albus!" McGonagall shushed the headmaster, and pointed at them.

"I believe they know what we are talking about, Minerva," Dumbledore said, to their shock. Eddie could feel the others stiffening at this thoroughly unexpected response from the Headmaster.

The two professors turned, and before either Eddie or anyone else could say anything, Dumbledore asked them, "Do you know anything about the Sorcerer's Stone? Please be honest. You will not get in trouble for it, I assure you."

"Um…" Eddie wasn't quite sure how to word his reply. He knew Dumbledore wouldn't trick him, so he said, "yes, actually, this is what we were trying to talk to Professor Dumbledore about. You see, we -" he indicated the rest of them, "we aren't from here."

"What do you mean by that?" McGonagall asked them, understanding that the two boys did not mean that they weren't from England.

"We… are from an alternate timeline, one where the Wizarding World does not exist, and is written as fiction."

Eddie felt his fingers going numb as he spoke, his nervousness heightening, afraid to think the two professors would scoff at such a silly claim. Part of him didn't believe it himself, so why should they?

"Fiction?" Dumbledore asked. The bewilderment in his voice made Eddie question this whole endeavor further still.

"That's right. The story follows the adventures of Harry Potter in his time at Hogwarts, from his first year to his seventh year. See, in that timeline, Harry survives Voldemort's Killing Curse in 1981. There are seven books, one for each year, which ultimately get adapted into films."

"Yeah," Nathan spoke up, "and that there is a lot of chaos we need to warn you about."

"Such as?" McGonagall asked him, throwing half a glance at Dumbledore, torn between amusement and sheer disbelief.

"Well, this year, um, Voldemort tries to steal the Sorcerer's Stone. Through one of the teachers."

"What!?" McGonagall cried, clearly aghast, forgetting all her demeanor as a strict professor.

"Well, currently, he's hiding under Professor Quirrell's turban."

"He's kind of possessing him," Lily interjected.

"Very well. Now, is he stopped? If so, how?" Dumbledore asked. Eddie felt a bubble of pride in his chest seeing how quickly the old wizard was grasping this story, which must be tremendously fantastic for him. And with that, he felt his last doubts about Dumbledore's believing this story slowly disappear.

"Yes. By Harry, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger." said Sean.

"He's defeated by Harry when he touches him. Lily's protection," Victoria told the headmaster.

"You know about - but that didn't work." Dumbledore now had the familiar twinkle in his eye, and they could see that he was thoroughly enjoying this.

"Indeed we do. You explain it to Harry when he's sitting in the hospital wing after he saves the Stone. And by the way, Lily's protection only failed because Voldemort used an unusual amount of hatred and anger in his curse."

"Okay, proceed," McGonagall told Eddie, shifting herself uncomfortably, yet forced to believe them because Dumbledore clearly did not seem to have any doubts.

"In Harry's second year, the Chamber of Secrets gets opened."

McGonagall's mouth dropped open, and she turned sharply to look at the Headmaster. Dumbledore, however, did not seem moved, and simply continued scrutinizing them with his twinkling blue eyes.

"By Lord Voldemort, again, I presume?" Dumbledore asked. Eddie suppressed a smile seeing how nonplussed the other professor looked.

"Yeah. This time he acts through someone else. Ron Weasley's little sister, Ginny Weasley. He kind of has a habit of possessing people."

Dumbledore smiled warmly. Then he asked, "Now, how exactly does Lord Voldemort possess Miss Weasley?"

"Through a diary he wrote when he was sixteen…" Eddie finished.

Dumbledore looked up sharply, and scrutinized Eddie with his piercing gaze. There was a stunned silence for a while, an extremely uncomfortable, tensed silence. The old Headmaster then nodded slowly, his eyes the colour of steely blue, and which carried a fierce expression. Eddie tried with all his might not to lower his gaze, and that seemed to take all his energy. Then, after what seemed like years, Dumbledore turned away from him, to look at the wall, and Eddie almost let out an audible sigh of relief.

"How on earth does Miss Weasley come to have such an artifact?" McGonagall asked, finally catching up with the truth, and coming back to her old strict self.

"I was just getting to that," Eddie told her, finding his voice again, as Dumbledore continued to stare at the wall. Eddie continued, preferring not to question him, "Lucius Malfoy. He slips into her cauldron in Diagon Alley in one of her textbooks. You might want to send a Ministry official to investigate."

"Will do," McGonagall said, her voice steady, though there was a look of concern spread on her face.

"Third year, Sirius Black escapes from Azkaban, but he's innocent in reality. The real culprit of Black's crime was none other than Peter Pettigrew. He has been hiding as well, as Ron Weasley's pet rat for ten years. Scabbers, they call him now," Eddie explained.

His declaration invoked another length of silence. McGonagall stared at her feet, taking it in. Dumbledore was still busy with scrutinizing the wall, and Eddie had to suppress the urge to call him.

"Merlin," whispered McGonagall, ending the silence. She was now pale as a sheet. "Albus, send an owl to the Ministry in the morning. We cannot have an innocent man in Azkaban." Dumbledore merely nodded, still quiet.

"Fourth year is when Voldemort returns," Lily said. Dumbledore turned his head at this, to look at Lily. He looked like he had aged ten years in the ten minutes he had spent scrutinizing the wall. "Kind of a big deal, considering Fudge doesn't do anything about except write a smear campaign against you and Harry, for saying that he's back. The Triwizard Tournament returns, and, um, Harry's name gets put into the Goblet of Fire even though he's underage, and there are four people in the tournament instead of three, It goes okay until Barty Crouch gets murdered by his son, yes, he's still alive, he's posing as Mad-Eye Moody, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. The next year, the Senior Undersecretary to the Minister, Dolores Umbridge, is hired as the Defense teacher but doesn't let the class use any spells for fear that you're going to train an army for an assault on the Ministry to seize power, and punishes Harry for telling the other students that he returned. By means of a blood quill, no less."

"A _Blood Quill_?" McGonagall asked, shocked. She had heard about those when she was very young. Her parents had joked with her about it, saying that they would use it if she stepped out of line. Quite the method for keeping children in line with the thought - she credited it to why she was so stern - but actually using it? The thought sickened her.

"Then sixth year...uhh...no offense, Professor Dumbledore, but Professor Snape kills you," said Claire awkwardly.

"Oh?" asked Dumbledore, mildly amused. Eddie smiled at how simply he took the idea of his death. "Now why and how would he do that?"

"Well, in the summer, before school," Victoria began apprehensively, unsure if she really wanted to be the person to tell someone exactly, in detail, how they would die, "You're looking for Horcruxes, and he has seven of those." Dumbledore's brow furrowed in concern. McGonagall looked even more horrified. Eddie remembered Slughorn's reaction when Voldemort had even floated such an idea, and wondered how badly Slughorn would have taken it if he ever found out that Voldemort had gone through with the plan.

"So that's how he survived. I wondered…" Dumbledore trailed off, clearly in deep thought.

Taking a deep breath, Victoria, now reaching the end of her story, began to talk quicker now. "So, in seventh year...well...it wasn't very good. While Harry, Ron, and Hermione were off hunting the other Horcruxes…Voldemort has taken the Ministry, and.." she bit her lip, "Hogwarts. It's...completely terrible there." She looked down, almost ashamed of what would transpire even though she would have nothing to do with it. "A lot of people die, I'd- I'd rather not say who…" she sort of lost her voice, grasping the fact that these were real deaths to these people.

"Calm down, Miss Parker. We will try our hardest to prevent those deaths, I assure you." Dumbledore said comfortingly. "Everything you have said is true?"

"Wait, give us some Veritaserum," Eddie asked, so there would be no doubt in the professor's minds.

"Very well," Dumbledore said. Eddie couldn't deny he was mildly surprised at how the Headmaster still insisted on proof. Dumbledore then proceeded to send for Professor Snape.

"Yes, Headmaster?" Snape drawled when he entered the room. Eddie shivered a little at the aura Snape cast over the room. It was almost unsettling to even stand next to him. Snape then noticed Eddie's little group. "What are two of my students doing here?" he demanded, glaring at Sean and Claire.

"Oh, nothing, Severus. I needed some Veritaserum for some private matters I needed to talk to these children about. Nothing serious."

"But, Headmaster, if it is Veritaserum you require-"

"Nothing, Severus," Dumbledore said a little more sternly.

Each one of the group carefully measured and drank one drop, when Snape had turned on his heel and left the office after providing Dumbledore with the potion that he carried in his robe pocket. The old wizard then repeated the question to them.

"Yes," each of them answered.

"Merlin's beard," McGonagall said.

"Now, we will try to stop everything as best we can," Dumbledore told them. "We cannot fire Professor Quirrell without proof. That will have to be handled on its own, as well as the Chamber of Secrets incident next year, as the Ministry is not likely to conduct a search on Malfoy Manor, given that Cornelius Fudge is an excellent friend of Lucius. We can, however, force them to give Sirius a proper trial. As you may know, Black was sent straight to Azkaban without trial by Barty Crouch Sr. I can assure you that Veritaserum will be used. He has suffered far too much. I do not believe we will be able to cancel the Triwizard Tournament, and I see no reason to, having no Harry to have his name put into the Goblet of Fire. Everything else, would, of course, rely on Voldemort's return, and therefore is not necessary to worry about, as of now. You may go," he said, beaming at all of them. Also, I will award you fifty house points each for everything you have told us tonight. Good luck." He added, and opened the door, guiding them out.


	5. A Subtle Science

When Eddie went down to breakfast the next morning, there was a great deal of chatter and nearly everyone had a copy of The Daily Prophet. With a feeling that he knew what all the hubbub was about, he sat down at the Hufflepuff table with Lily, muttering, "I guess Dumbledore owled the Ministry." He sat down, took an abandoned copy and began to read. A certain familiar, angry, unshaven face was looking up at him, screaming silently.

**BLACK TO BE GIVEN TRIAL**

T_he Ministry of Magic has agreed to give a hearing to the notorious mass-murderer Sirius Black over his crimes committed almost ten years ago, in talks with Albus Dumbledore, Order of Merlin, first class, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, and Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, late Monday evening, provided Black be given Veritaserum. Black is an accused Death Eater who was sent to Azkaban in 1981 for the murder of Peter Pettigrew and twelve Muggles. It is rumored that it was he who leaked the hidden location of Lily and James Potter to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, allowing the now-deceased Dark Lord to murder them._

_Black's hearing will be held Sunday, the eighth of September._

"Wow," said Eddie. "I can't believe we ch-" He was cut off by a warning look from Lily. "I mean, can't believe he did that." That drew some weird looks, but no one thought much of it.

That morning they had double Defense Against the Dark Arts with the Slytherins. 'Great,' Eddie thought, 'two hours with Quirrell.' Knowing what he was, it would certainly be difficult to concentrate. Quirrell began the lesson by taking attendance, and played his part well, in Eddie's opinion. No one in their right mind would think that Lord Voldemort was on the back of his head, under that purple turban. Lily, evidently thinking along those lines, asked him what was under the turban.

"G-garlic," was Quirrell's reply. "W-wards off the v-v-ampires, y-you know," and he attempted a smile. 'Playing the nice guy,' Eddie thought. Who would suspect "p-poor st-stuttering P-Professor Quirrell"? After that, lunch, and then break. That afternoon he had — History of Magic. Disappointing, but he figured he'd make the best of it. As Sean had forewarned him, they "learned" about the Gargoyle Revolution of 1911. He was out within the first five minutes. Well, in and out. Every once in a while he'd look over and see Lily scribbling notes. When the bell rang, Eddie asked her what she was writing.

"A list of every major sports championship winner since the start of the century." She lowered her voice to a whisper. "I only did up to today cause I didn't want anyone to get suspicious, I know the chances are slim, but I wasn't taking any risks." Eddie asked to see her notes, and was fairly impressed by them. That afternoon after classes he planned a surprise. He himself was almost jumping with anticipation when the idea struck him. He definitely wouldn't miss something like that. He led the other seven Hufflepuffs down a certain seventh-floor corridor, to near a painting of a wizard trying to train trolls in ballet. They were puzzled when Eddie turned to face a blank stretch of wall, scrutinizing it as he would a math test.

"What's all this about?" Megan Jones asked, almost out of breath. Eddie was almost shaking from excitement as he prepared to tell them, and in fact he wanted to, to further believe it himself.

"Okay, guys, you're going to like this," Eddie said to the group at large, hardly able to stop his hands shaking. "This," indicating the expansive space of the empty wall behind him, "is the Room of Requirement." He paused for dramatic effect, in which he could hear at least three people mutter: "The what?"

"You can make this room contain whatever you want, with some notable exceptions, those being the Five Exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration." At this Ernie nodded, to act like he knew what Eddie was talking about.

"So, what shall we come up with?" Eddie asked.

"Dunno," said Lily.

"Hmm…" Eddie thought long and hard, also feeling the pressure of the awkward silence. "How about… erm…" He came up with nothing.

"How about a Quidditch pitch?" Megan Jones suggested. She was a huge fan of the sport herself. There was a general murmur of excited assent throughout the group. Eddie visualized the pitch in his head, with its bright colors and tall goal posts. Taking three strides past the wall, he turned to the door that was just appearing on the stone wall, and wrenched it open. Waiting for them inside was an exact replica of the Quidditch pitch just outside the castle walls. The stands with the four house colors, the three tall bronze hoops, and a crate of Quidditch gear lying at midfield. They decided to split into teams of five and four, (playing without Beaters or Bludgers,) after teaching Justin to fly. Agreeing on boys vs. girls, they played an exciting match. Lily played Seeker and caught the Golden Snitch to break a tie at 480. By that point it was almost curfew, and they were glad they finished up in time. They walked back to the common room, laughing and talking, about how Ernie had made a particularly spectacular save off of Hannah, lunging across from the right hoop to the left one to block the shot, how Eddie underhanded the Quaffle and it rang off the middle hoop over Susan's head with a loud bonk, how Justin had scared Megan into dropping the Quaffle with a shriek when she was about to pass to Hannah.

_Yeah_, Eddie thought, w_elcome home._

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The following day Eddie woke up and groaned as he realized that he had Potions. Not being a favourite subject of Harry's throughout the series, Eddie had a hard time trying to believe he would enjoy it either. Double Transfiguration went by way too fast and soon enough he was walking down to the dungeons with Lily, Nathan, and Victoria. The four of them walked in just before the bell, earning a glare from Snape, who said nothing. When the class started, Snape gave the same speech like the one he would give to the first year Gryffindors and Slytherins. At the end of his speech, he trailed off mysteriously and Eddie thought he was looking at him. But he shrugged it off and decided it was a trick of the light. Eddie looked at Justin and raised his eyebrows, and Justin looked back utterly confused. An embarrassed Eddie buried his head in his textbook. Then he once again heard a generally unfriendly voice calling him.

"Pattinson! What is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

_Oh, boy, get ready to be surprised, _he thought.

"They're the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite," Eddie answered coolly. Though, he was partly taken aback when he heard the question, for originally Snape had asked Harry about the result obtained on mixing asphodel with wormwood.

"Well it seems our little reader has an aptitude for potion-making," Snape drawled in the tone he usually used with the Gryffindors. This earned some approving glances from the rest of the Hufflepuffs until Snape snapped, "Ten points from Hufflepuff."

Shocked that Snape could hate him so quickly, Eddie inquired, "With all due respect, sir, why?"

"Don't talk back, Pattinson. For cheating. You had your insolent little head in your textbook right before I asked you that question. I'll take another off for your cheek."

This shut Eddie and the rest of the Hufflepuffs up, though he could tell Ernie was about to contest the points Snape took. He quickly advised him to shut up. "It's not worth it."

"Five more for talking," Snape's voice rang out.

"That was completely unfair," Ernie was saying as the Hufflepuffs filed out of the dungeons two hours later. "You were completely respectful and there was no way you were cheating."

Eddie told him he didn't really mind, he'd make up the points later. His mind was on something else anyway.

He figured that he'd take the other world-jumpers to the Room. So, after they had sat around for forty-five minutes, he and Lily got up, told Ernie and the rest where they were going, and went to meet the others. Tom and Natalie were already there, as they were on the same floor. Not long after, Nathan and Victoria arrived. Sean and Natalie were the last to show. They all filed in, each one grinning widely, knowing they could never get used to magic, or knowing that they were truly in Hogwarts. Eddie said:

"We need to name our group. You know, something unique to refer ourselves with, like how the Marauders named themselves…"

"The New Marauders?" Victoria suggested, deriving the name from that of the legendary four.

"The Bringers of Balance?"

"The Ravenpuff Lionsnakes!"

"I've got it!" Nathan exclaimed. "The Fateful Eight! Y'know, cause fate brought us together?"

"Ooh, that's a good one," said Claire. "I like it."

"Brilliant!" said Eddie, "So we all agree on the Fateful Eight?"

Everyone did. Glad they had chosen a name, Nathan revelled in his minor victory, of it being him who had picked.

"So that's decided. Um, that's kinda the only thing I wanted to do, so I'm heading back. Figured it would probably be easier than trying to all meet up at breakfast or something." Shrugging, he walked off.

And so the Fateful Eight was born.

When they got back to the common room, Eddie and Lily played Exploding Snap with the rest of the Hufflepuffs, which Justin ended up winning. After, when the rest of Eddie's fellow badgers had gone to bed, he was left staring into the dying embers of the fire. He thought for a long while about why he was not telling his classmates anything. Could he not trust them?

'No,' said a voice in his head, 'they just can't handle the information'. Plus, it was a major risk. If word got out, all their lives would be in danger.

At around ten-thirty, Eddie finally got up and went to bed, his head still swimming in thoughts of what lay before him.

As the rest of the week progressed, Eddie and the rest of the Fateful Eight made regular trips to the Room of Requirement, which helped them come further together as a group. It also created some very humoring memories. On one such occasion, Nathan had snuck bowls of cereal from the kitchens, then proceeded to dump a pair of them on Tom's head, causing the Gryffindor to glare at him the whole time he was wiping his glasses.

They had their first flying lesson after classes on Thursday, which was held with all Houses. Their fourth flying lesson, they were told, was going to be a tryout for the Quidditch teams. Eddie desperately hoped to make the Hufflepuff team. Hufflepuff had not won a house Quidditch cup in ten years, the longest active drought at Hogwarts, according to Lily. Slytherin had won it the last four seasons in a row. Before that it was Gryffindor with two consecutive championships, led by Charlie Weasley. Ravenclaw had last won in 1984.

"Oh, and I've spoken to McGonagall," she said after telling Eddie this. "I've explained to her what a color commentator is and she said that I could do the job with Lee."

"Nice," Eddie said uncertainly.

Walking up to them, Tom greeted them with a cheeky grin and then told them he had told Neville to leave his Remembrall in the common room.

"Great," Eddie said. He didn't want Malfoy trying anything, though he was unsure if he would, given the extra scrutiny on the lesson.

As their first flying lesson progressed, they were taught how to summon their brooms, which the Fateful Eight already knew. The school had upgraded from Shooting Stars to Cleansweep Sevens for the year. Nathan's broom flew to him on the first try, Eddie's on the third. Natalie got it after ten or so tries. On the other end, Claire was having a very difficult time summoning her broom, but she got it at last. They then practiced mounting their broom.

After that, they did a few laps around the Quidditch pitch, and landed. Once everyone was circled around Madam Hooch again, she told them they'd be practicing basic Quidditch skills, such as passing, shooting, dodging Bludgers, saving goals, and catching the Snitch. They divided evenly by house, with twelve each. The Gryffindors took turns shooting against the Slytherins and the Hufflepuffs against the Ravenclaws. After a while they switched positions, the "Chasers" became "Keepers", and vice versa. Eddie did get to shoot against Victoria, and he made the most of the opportunity, swerving left before deceptively throwing the Quaffle through the right hoop.

When the practice was over, they returned to the common rooms. It had been an exhausting day,

A/N I know the Fateful Eight is really cheesy, but there is no way I will go this entire fanfic without thinking of a group name.

A/N-Go subscribe to EverythingHP on YouTube! She makes really good Harry Potter content!

Channel link- channel/UCBWIDHwAAVtcZlHRuknWYug

Also, if you have any ideas, please, leave me reviews! I read them all!


	6. Quirrell

It was hard concentrating in Defense Against the Dark Arts the following afternoon. Eddie and Lily were too busy staring at Quirrell's turban, knowing what was under there, combined with the fact that it was their last class, and the weekend was almost here. One detail they did notice, however, was that Quirrell seemed to be stuttering much more than had been described. Did he suspect something? Eddie shrugged it off, and didn't stare at the turban much after that. He did have half a mind to hex the turban off Quirrell's head, to show everyone who he really was, but decided against it. That would be irresponsible and do more harm than good. Then Lily gave him a nudge. Apparently, Eddie had drifted too far off mentally, and he saw Quirrell's sharp hazel eyes staring down at him.

"M-M-Mr. P-Pattinson I w-would ask you to p-pay b-better attention to what I am saying, i-if y-you p-p-please." Quirrell stuttered.

"Huh- Oh, yes Professor." Eddie said, not really listening.

"S-so could y-you answer m-my question?"

"Oh — uh — no…" Eddie stammered, all the while looking extremely guilty.

"W-well then, t-ten p-points from H-H-Hufflepuff."

It was then when, from his left, Ernie yet again got angry.

"He wasn't even -"

But Eddie nudged him, very hard. Testing Snape was one thing, but testing Voldemort was something else entirely. Even in Voldemort's weakened state, he was still very much of a threat, and Eddie didn't want this to be remembered when Voldemort was stronger - just in case.

Ernie was still grumbling about Quirrell. "He can't ask you to pay attention and then ask you a question and expect you to answer it. Quite the Snape move to me. What a nutter."

As Quirrell got to the front of his desk he glared into the eyes of Ernie.

"Ten more points from Hufflepuff."

This voice was stern and sharp, devoid of the normal stutter that characterised his speech.

Eddie shivered at the sharp, cold manner. He had heard it used only once before, when Quirrell finally revealed himself at the end of the first movie. Snapping back to reality, Eddie desperately tried to push this worry out of his mind. Voldemort would be more concerned with finding a body. Yes, there shouldn't be a need to worry. He closed his eyes for a moment, regained his composure, then went about the rest of his day with nothing eventful happening.

After dinner, in the common room, when, once again, everyone but the first years had gone to bed, Ernie asked Eddie a question. "What was that look on your face when you nudged me in Defense this morning? You looked downright scared, mate."

"That voice..." He took a deep breath. "It was nothing."

"You sure, mate?" Ernie looked genuinely concerned for his friend.

Eddie took a long look at him. This was why it was so hard to keep his knowledge concealed. He glanced at Lily.

"I'm sure," he said with a smile, though he didn't share the warm feeling inside.

Eddie was sitting and talking in the Great Hall with Justin, Lily, and Nathan, explaining to the Ravenclaw in an engrossed manner, when none other than Professor Severus Snape strolled up to them, robes billowing behind him. The greasy-haired Potions master drawled, "Pattinson, Jackson, Turner, come with me."

Then Justin made the mistake of asking, "Wait, what's happened, Professor?"

Snape turned his head to look at the Muggle-Born and Justin backed away, nervously.

"That," Snape snapped, "is none of your concern, Finch-Fletchley." And he swept the other three with a glance, and turned around. It was understood they had to follow him without questions.

Eddie looked at Nathan and Lily, confused. Why did Snape need them? He wondered.

His unasked question was answered when he walked into Snape's office in the dungeons and saw the rest of the Fateful Eight sitting there. Snape walked round to his desk and turned to face them.

"You have been summoned here," he paused dramatically, and Nathan snickered. Snape silenced him with a deadly look. The pause seemed to take a toll on everyone's heart rate, and Eddie secretly cursed Snape's love of being dramatic and mysterious, as the hooked-nosed Professor eyed each one of them with an utterly expressionless face. "Because it is the Headmaster's request that you learn Occlumency."

Eddie's eyes widened. Occlumency? Was Snape serious?

Snape went on, "As you continue to attempt to grandly stop the Dark Lord's attempts to return to power, it may become obvious to some that you are not ordinary students. The Dark Lord may eventually return, and when he does, you eight blessed students shall be his natural targets, as you contain a bevy of knowledge as to how and why he ever failed to kill Harry Potter." The way he failed to keep out the seemingly quintessential note of sarcasm in his voice couldn't be missed.

Lost and confused, Eddie searched his brain frantically for a hope that none of what Snape said was true and that they'd be able to live normal lives - well, normal as possible - at Hogwarts without reliving Harry's.

"But Harry's dead," Sean blurted out.

"Oh, use your common sense," Claire snapped at him. "He's obviously talking about Harry in our version, you dolt."

"Well, okay, then, Claire-" Sean began to retort but was interrupted by Snape.

"Silence," he ordered, and almost magically the entire group fell silent. "Now, I shall perform Legilimency on each of you in turn, and judge for myself if you may prove to be any good." There was a faint smirk on his face.

Beginning with Sean, Snape delved into each of their minds in turn, reluctantly complimenting them on what they had done right and unhesitantly criticising them for their mistakes. When he got to Eddie, he said:

"On the count of three, Pattinson. One, two, three… Legilimens!"

Almost instantly, Eddie was hit with a wave of nostalgia. Nine years old, he was scanning the school library for new reads, when suddenly, one caught his eye. Rushing over, he found a copy of _Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone_...

Remembering what his task was at the moment, Eddie tried his utmost to block Snape from his mind, and after several moments, achieved the feat and returned to reality.

"A fine job, Pattinson. Not bad for your first attempt," Snape commended him, the reluctance noticeable.

The lesson progressed, with each member of the Fateful Eight improving as it did. By the end, only Lily was able to throw off Snape's Legilimency completely. Snape instructed them to return once a day, and to tell no one where they had been.

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The following morning, Eddie managed to lay his eyes on a copy of the Daily Prophet from Ernie to see the result of Sirius' trial. The headline read:

**BLACK RELEASED UPON TRIAL, PETTIGREW PROVEN TO BE ALIVE AND IN HIDING**

"Hey, Ernie, you mind if I take this?" Eddie asked.

"Nah, you can have it," he said, then started a conversation with Susan.

_The Ministry of Magic has released Sirius Black from Azkaban, presently after his trial which concluded yesterday. Black was found not guilty of the murders, and of providing information to He Who Must Not Be Named, under Veritaserum, and went on to accuse Peter Pettigrew, a man assumed to be dead all these years._

Following this were more details about Sirius Black and the Ministry's work. Eddie skipped to the most interesting part.

_Peter Pettigrew remained till now as a monument of loyalty, who went looking for Black after the latter betrayed James and Lily Potter, their school friends, to He Who Must Not Be Named. Pettigrew was thought to be killed, along with twelve other Muggles, by Sirius Black, who cast a curse powerful enough to drop a huge crater spanning yards, and that spared only Pettigrew's index finger. Pettigrew was posthumously given the Order of Merlin, First Class._

_Sirius Black stated that Pettigrew was alive, and revealed with great rage and disgust that it was Pettigrew who secretly fed He Who Must Not Be Named and the Death Eaters with information, betrayed the Potters, and murdered the twelve Muggles with the Blasting Curse before severing an index finger and disappearing._

_On being questioned about how Pettigrew could possibly disappear, Sirius Black narrated a fantastic story about how he, Peter Pettigrew and James Potter became unregistered Animagi, wizards with the power to transform into an animal at will, during their school days. Peter, he added, could turn into a rat._

Again, Eddie thought it wiser to skip greater details about their time at school and Remus Lupin's lycanthropy. At the end:

_The Wizengamot dropped all charges, and Black has been reimbursed with one hundred thousand Galleons as compensation._

Eddie showed it to Lily, and then he met up with the rest of the Fateful Eight to discuss the events.

"So, when are they going to find Pettigrew?" he asked.

"Well, Dumbledore knows," said Tom. "We told him, remember?"

No sooner were the words out of his mouth when the aged wizard stood up from the High Table.

"All students in possession of a rat are requested to report to the Headmaster's office after classes today for investigation. There will be absolutely no consequences if Peter Pettigrew is discovered to be in the possession of any student as a pet rat. Also," he added with a twinkle in his eyes, "the password is 'Chocolate Cauldron'."

Later that day, there were murmurs that broke out all over the school. Pettigrew had been found. He would later be dragged out of the castle in chains by security wizards akin to those stationed at Gringotts, as Dumbledore refused to let dementors in the castle. Pettigrew's blood-curdling screaming that he was innocent sent a chill up Eddie's spine. Ron, for his part, seemed to be enjoying the attention. Eddie dwelled briefly on how Harry's absence would affect Ron - it was widely known to the Potter fandom and mentioned several times in the books - that Ron was often jealous of Harry, thus putting strain on their friendship at times.

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As the weeks passed, the Fateful Eight slowly got into the routine of being Hogwarts students. True, it was a little less exciting than they had expected, but no less magical. During the day, they would have classes, followed by a short thirty minute Occlumency lesson with Snape, then they would retire to their dormitories. Often they would make trips to the Room of Requirement, where they would play Quidditch, covered in the many other games they experienced. Not wanting his Hufflepuff friends to be left out, Eddie, along with Lily, invited them to witness them make their own adventures in the room.

And finally, the day arrived. They had reached their fourth flying lesson, where, as promised, they would try out for the House Quidditch teams. When they arrived, they saw the four Quidditch captains standing there with Madam Hooch — Oliver Wood, Marcus Flint, Hufflepuff's Terry Strickland, and Ravenclaw's Robert Hilliard.

It was easy to tell which house they belonged to, as each was dressed in their Quidditch robes — Gryffindor red, Ravenclaw blue, Slytherin green, and Hufflepuff yellow.

Eddie flew admirably for his own part, and at the end of the tryout Madame Hooch announced the selections. Hufflepuff was the last house to be called. Fingers crossed, Eddie bounced on the balls of his feet, hoping that he'd performed well enough. Terry Strickland stepped forward.

"Hufflepuff has chosen two first years!" he announced. Eddie's heart leapt. Only three of them (Eddie, Ernie, and Megan) had tried out, which put the odds greatly in Eddie's favor.

"Firstly, as Keeper, Ernie MacMillan!" A polite smattering of applause.

"Secondly, as Chaser, Eddie Pattinson!"

Eddie paused for a second. Surely it wasn't Megan? Megan had flown better than he. When she didn't step forward, he did, still in shock that he could have done so well, with nothing more than reading experience. Getting some actual flying experience in would be amazing.

"My father will hear about this!" Eddie heard Malfoy calling as he and Ernie walked over to Terry, their new Quidditch captain. Clearly, Draco had not made it to the Slytherin team.

"So," he clapped his hands as Eddie and Ernie got there, "I'm very impressed with the way you played, both of you. Especially you, Eddie, being a Muggle-born, I'm very surprised with how fast you grasped flying. Now, your first practice will be this upcoming Saturday, at ten o'clock in the morning, so that's when you'll meet the rest of the team! Good luck to you both!"

Leaving the grounds with Ernie, the worry about Voldemort disappearing for the moment, Eddie felt thoroughly excited. Quidditch! Sure, baseball and hockey were fun, but neither sport took you airborne. At dinner that night they told the rest that they'd now be on the team.

"Great!" said Justin. "When's your first practice?"

"Dunno," Ernie said. "I expect Cedric or one of them will tell us at some point."

Eddie went to bed that night feeling exceptionally relaxed, and couldn't wait for training to begin.

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He was woken the following Saturday rather roughly by Ernie, and was feeling thoroughly disgruntled until he heard:

"C'mon, Quidditch! I almost forgot!"

At which point Eddie scrambled out of bed, not wanting to miss his first practice.

When they got to the changing rooms, they saw their Quidditch robes laid out, each a bright shade of canary yellow, with a charcoal-black number embroidered on the back. Eddie smiled when he turned his robes over and found he was to wear #2, after his favorite baseball player, former Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter. The team roster was tacked up on the wall. It read, neatly:

**HUFFLEPUFF HOUSE QUIDDITCH TEAM 1991-1992**

Head of House - Prof. Pomona Sprout

Captain - Terry Strickland

#1 Ernie MacMillan - Keeper

#2 Eddie Pattinson - Chaser

#3 Patricia Stimpson - Chaser

#4 Robert Hawking - Chaser

#5 Terry Strickland (Captain) - Beater

#6 Jake Flinton - Beater

#7 Cedric Diggory - Seeker

When they got outside to the pitch, Terry gave a little speech to them all.

"Now, congratulations for making the team, but we've got a lot of work to do before our first match. The Gryffindor vs. Slytherin match will take place on the second of November, and we play Ravenclaw two weeks after that. All right, we'll start with a few laps, OK?"

So practice began. On the third lap, Eddie noticed Sean sitting in the stands. After they were done with that, Eddie and the other Chasers practiced shooting on Ernie, while Terry and the other beater, Jake Flinton, practiced aiming a Bludger at Cedric, who was dodging it effortlessly.

Eddie was watching them for a little, distracted, when something else caught his eye. Something… purple.

Eddie looked down and sure enough, Quirrell was in the stands, staring at them. Eddie only broke eye contact when a Bludger, which had gone astray, whooshed over his hair, and he got back to practicing on Ernie.

He couldn't shake the feeling that night, and he was oddly quiet in the common room, skipping dinner and going to bed early. Ernie and Justin noticed this, and inquired when they were in the dormitories.

"Oh...er….nothing..I'm fine," he did his best to reassure them, and managed a grin. They'd bought it.

While he was worrying about this, another frightening thought crept into his mind. Things were going perfectly for him and the rest of the Fateful Eight… almost too perfectly. Tossing and turning in his bedsheets, he laid awake for several hours, and fell asleep on that uneasy note.


	7. Quidditch

The calendar soon flipped to October, and with it, the leaves' colors turned steadily from green to orange. Lily, being the sports nerd she was, kept up a daily routine of informing Eddie and the rest of the Fateful Eight of the day's MLB playoff games. The four teams competing that season were the Minnesota Twins, Atlanta Braves, Toronto Blue Jays, and Pittsburgh Pirates.

Inside the walls of Hogwarts, the Fateful Eight were slowly anticipating Halloween, but not for any normal reason. They knew that Professor Quirrell would let a troll into the castle, sprint up to the Great Hall, announce the troll's presence (to avoid suspicion) and faint dead on the floor. This caused some worry to the Eight, as without Harry to remind Ron about Hermione, their friendship would never start. Tom though, cool-headed as ever, had a plan. He would simply act as a place-holder for Harry, in case Ron decided to be a jerk and start the chain.

When they reached their last-period Charms class they were apprehensive, but sure enough, Hermione famously corrected Ron on the pronounciation of Leviosa, and sure enough, Ron sulked, and sure enough, Ron decided to snippily comment on Hermione's lack of friends. Of course. Tom gave Eddie, Natalie, and Lily a look that plainly said, _Guess I have to do it. Minor inconvenience, ah well_.

When they arrived in the Great Hall that evening, they took time to admire the decorations, but their minds were elsewhere. As expected, halfway during the feast, Quirrell burst in.

"TRRRRRRROOOOOOOOLLLLL! IN THE DUNGEON! TROLLLLLLL!"

Then he fainted.

Dumbledore called silence, and then ordered the prefects to lead their students to their dormitories.

Eddie saw Tom go up to Ron, then the pair of them dashed off to the girl's bathroom.

When Eddie returned to the common room, he found that there was tables with food everywhere. He remembered a throwaway line in Sorcerer's Stone:

"Students are finishing the feast in their dormitories." Eddie supposed that this was the feast.

He sat down at a table with Ernie, Justin, Susan, and Lily, and began to eat. Excited chatter filled the room.

"How did a troll get in?" Susan asked. "Aren't they supposed to be really stupid?"

"Dunno," Eddie said, feigning confusion, "Maybe Peeves let it in?"

As the rest of them talked, Eddie's mind wandered to Tom, he wondered how he was handling a troll. Because he knew what he was doing, he guessed, probably more ably than Harry did. He couldn't wait to hear his story in the morning.

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When Eddie went down to breakfast, Tom was telling the story to the rest of the Fateful Eight.

"So, anyway, when Ron and I got down to the bathroom, of course, Hermione was already in there, so we busted in, and just did the same thing as in the book, you know, just _Leviosa_-d the club and knocked out the troll. Good thing Hermione told the same lie when the teachers showed up."

"That's awesome!" Eddie exclaimed. "Hey-did you get the 10 points?"

"We did," Tom said, "Course, she took off Hermione's."

When Natalie showed up in the Great Hall, they each wished her good luck as she had her Quidditch match against Slytherin in a few hours. She ate rather a lot for breakfast and was a little nervous as she walked out and down to the pitch.

The rest of them went down with the school. It was a clear, fine, day, and Eddie wondered whether Natalie was as gifted a Seeker as Harry was. They decided to sit in their own house sections, and just as Lily sat down next to Eddie she clapped a hand to her forehead.

"Oh, my, I almost forgot, I'm supposed to be Lee's color commentator. Gotta go!"

When the match started, Lee's voice emanated through the crowd as usual, but there was a little shock at hearing Lily's.

"And off they go, as Angelina Johnson takes the Quaffle and begins streaking toward the Slytherin end. Incidentally, I'm joined by Lily Jackson, who's told me there's a new position of "color commentator". No idea what that means. And now Johnson's really belting along up there, a neat pass to Alicia Spinnet, a good find of Oliver Wood's, last year only a reserve - back to Johnson and - no, the Slytherins have taken the Quaffle, Slytherin Captain Marcus Flint gains the Quaffle and off he goes - Flint flying like an eagle up there - he's going to sc - no, stopped by an excellent move by Gryffindor Keeper Wood and the Gryffindors take the Quaffle - that's Chaser Katie Bell of Gryffindor there, nice dive around Flint, off up the field and - OUCH - that must have hurt, hit in the back of the head by a Bludger - Quaffle taken by the Slytherins - that's Adrian Pucey speeding off toward the goal posts, but he's blocked by a second Bludger - sent his way by Fred or George Weasley, can't tell which - nice play by the Gryffindor Beater, anyway, and Johnson back in possession of the Quaffle, a clear field ahead and off she goes - she's really flying - dodges a speeding Bludger - the goal posts are ahead - Keeper Bletchley dives - misses - GRYFFINDORS SCORE!"

Now Lily had her chance to speak.

"That's Johnson's 15th career goal, a milestone. Course, the all-time record is way off from there, and astounding 180 scored by Hugh Biggs in his six-year career, or 10 goals per game. She has time to catch him, though."

Lee's voice rang out once more,  
"And it's interesting facts like that why Professor McGonagall told me we have this position, anyways, back to the commentary and now it'll be Flint with the Quaffle…"

At one point Natalie saw the elusive Golden Snitch and dove for it, but missed, and it flew away again.

Eddie was watching the match intently, trying to see if Quirrell was going to pull any antics. He doubted it, but was on his guard nonetheless.

Katie Bell scored to extend Gryffindor's lead to 40-10.  
"Now Spinnet," Lily was saying, "last year, like you said, a reserve, scored 3 goals in the last match, filling in for Christopher Flack who was out at the time with a nasty case of-"

But she was cut off by Natalie seeing the Snitch for the second time.

"Hold on, Lily, I'm gonna have to cut you off there, Rogers has just seen the Snitch and now she's diving for it, and whoa! Flint, with a nasty hit on Rogers, and yep, that's going to be a foul!"

"So - after that obvious and disgusting bit of cheating-"

"Jordan!" growled Professor McGonagall.

"I mean, after that open and revolting foul..."

"Jordan, I'm warning you-"

"All right, all right. Flint nearly kills the Gryffindor Seeker, which could happen to anyone, I'm sure, so a penalty to Gryffindor, taken by Spinner, who puts it away, no trouble, and we continue play, Gryffindor still in possession." He then muttered just loud enough for the crowd to hear, "Serves you right, you cheating scum."

As the match progressed, it became clear that Quirrell wasn't going to pull anything. Natalie eventually caught the Snitch, and Gryffindor won, 300-120.

The following two weeks passed with Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw preparing for their match on the 16th. As they would be playing each other, Nathan and Eddie often traded playful banter whenever they met.

Finally, they reached the day. As Eddie walked into the Great Hall, he noticed a difference in tension. The school seemed more relaxed. A few people wished Eddie luck as he made his way to his seat and started to discuss the conditions with Ernie.

Ernie had gotten off to a rough start in practice, but thanks to rigorous training with Eddie he had improved greatly. Then Nathan walked up to them.

"I wonder," he said with mock thoughtfulness, "whether this is going to be as lopsided as last year's division series between the Yankees and Red Sox."

"Ha, you wish," Eddie shot back, grinning. "And for the record," he said, looking around, "We lost two games by one run. Easily could've won it."

"Anyways, good luck," Nathan said, offering his hand.

"You too," Eddie replied, shaking it.

When they got down to the pitch, they split up, each heading for their respective changing room.

As Eddie sat in the changing room pulling on his Quidditch robes with butterflies in his stomach, Hufflepuff captain Terry Strickland walked into the room. His nerves were coming from the fact that this was his first game and it was only against Ravenclaw, a formidable opponent but nowhere near the two powerhouses wearing red and green.

Terry's pregame speech seemed to be speaking to those butterflies.

"Alright team, listen up, I know most of them out there aren't giving us much of a chance, but give it everything you've got, okay?"

Eddie exchanged a quick glance with Ernie, who seemed to be suffering from the same nervousness.

When they walked onto the field it was mostly to cheers but for a few notable exceptions.

Patricia Stimpson took the faceoff against Roger Davies and won it, quickly passing it to Robert Hawking, who passed it to Eddie. Now _this_ was his chance to make an impact.

Wind whipping his ears, he swerved around Davies, ducked a Bludger from one of the Ravenclaw Beaters, he couldn't see which, passed it to Patricia, got it back, aimed at the right hand goal, got the Ravenclaw Keeper, Grant Page, to go for it, and then fired it through the abandoned center goal. He grinned at Nathan and mouthed, _Your turn._

Nathan took Eddie up on the offer, scoring to tie the game,

"So Turner scores," Lee was saying, "Both first year Chasers have now." He turned to Lily. "Any interesting statistic on that?"

"As a matter of fact there is," Lily answered, and Eddie could see she was truly excited. "That's the first time two opposing first year Chasers have scored the first two goals of the game since Sophia Prickett of Gryffindor and Katie Rayknolls of Slytherin in 1720."

Eddie scored another goals before the first real excitement of the day, when Cho Chang thought she saw the snitch, but no dice.

Eddie desperately wanted to outscore Nathan, and as it was, they were deadlocked at 3 each when Eddie scored to give himself a personal 4-3 lead, and it was just in time.

"Diggory catches the Snitch, and that's it!" Lee Jordan said. "Hufflepuff wins, 290-160, and what a game!"

There was smiles all around that night in the common room. Terry Strickland informed Eddie and Ernie that that was the first game Hufflepuff had won in three years.

"Yikes," Eddie said. Then, without thinking, "We're like the Orioles."  
"The who?" Terry asked with interest.

"Muggle sports team that lost 21 straight games to open the season a few years back," Eddie replied, thinking quickly, remembering something Lily had said the other day

The party lasted for about four to five hours, then they went to bed.


	8. Your Heart's Desire

As November turned into December, the Fateful Eight continued their explorations throughout the castle, but they were running out of ideas for new adventures. That is, until one Saturday when Nathan had the bright idea.

"Hey, Victoria," he said slyly. one day at breakfast. "We should totally go find the Mirror of Erised later."

She grinned. "Remember what Dumbledore said though? Men have wasted away in front of it."

"Yeah, but we're not idiots, we're in _Ravenclaw_, Vic. And I doubt the others are idiots. Tom is a literal genius, he'll end up being Minister, I guarantee."

"Ugh, fine," Victoria said, and she went to tell the others.

That afternoon, word had been passed to the entire Fateful Eight, and they all met up outside the Great Hall.

"So," Eddie clapped his hands together. "How shall we go about this?"

"Well, if we go to the library," said Tom, always the strategist, "cause that's where Harry was, we should be able to find it."

They agreed on that, and they headed toward the library.

Once they got there, Lily, thinking hard, said, "I remember there being a suit of armor. Shall we split up and look for one?" Which they did, dividing by house.

Eventually, it was Claire and Sean who found it. Claire quickly marked their spot with a hair tie she hung on the doorknob and the pair went to find the others.

Soon, they were all assembled once more in front of the room.

"So..who wants to go first?" Lily squeaked.

"I'll do it," said Nathan pompously. He pushed the door open and he stepped inside.

The dusty Mirror of Erised stood in a corner and Nathan strode to the front of it. Engraved on the mirror were the words,

_Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi_.

Which, translated backwards, read, "I show not your face but your heart's desire."

"What can you see, Nate?" Victoria asked.

"Er..I'm...uh...Head Boy. Yeah." Eddie could tell Nathan was lying, but didn't say anything.

"Really?"

"Uh….yeah.."

"Come on, you can tell us," Claire urged him.

Nathan sighed. "Erm….well….Vic…..don't take this the wrong way...but..well...I'm married to you."

Victoria blinked. "Come again?"

"I'm married to you," Nathan said a little more loudly. The following awkward silence seemed to hang in the air like thick gas.

"Well, er, that's what I saw in the mirror anyway," Nathan muttered.

"See, Vic, I know we've known each other for like three months, and I know this is gonna sound cheesy and super generic as all Azkaban, but you're nice and funny, and I just really like you."

"Oh..thanks…" She scratched her head. "This...er...isn't what I was expecting."

"Neither was I."

So from that awkward note, they progressed to Tom, who saw himself as Minister for Magic, to Natalie, who saw herself as Quidditch captain, holding the cup, and finally to Eddie.

When the auburn-haired Hufflepuff stepped in the mirror, he saw….

Themselves.

Exactly as they were.

No change.

But suddenly, the image began to change, like a timelapse.

Moving shapes swirled around the Fateful Eight, and they grew taller, as various members held trophies and earned prefect's badges, until finally the mirror stopped. They were 17, standing on the bridge just like the Golden Trio at the end of _Deathly Hallows_ _Part 2_.

"What is it?" Lily asked.

"It's...beautiful. We all live, and we're standing on the bridge, like in _Deathly Hallows_."

"Really?"

"Yep."

They filed through the rest of the group. Lily saw herself as the first female lead sportscaster, Victoria as Head Girl, and Claire saw not herself, but Umbridge being given a life sentence in Azkaban, which they all had a good laugh at.

They left, rather in a good mood. Victoria seemed to have gotten over the shock of Nathan liking her and Nathan over the embarrassment.

Eddie told him,

"Hey, that takes a lot to admit what you saw, proud of you, mate."

"Thanks. I do hope I wasn't too blunt."

"Nah. You'll have to wait a bit before she likes you back though,_ trust me_. Girls are weird."

They had a good laugh all the way back to the Great Hall, at which point they split up with their house pairs.

"Good luck walking back with Vickie," Eddie teased. Nathan grinned. "Shut up."

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Snow soon came upon the castle, and with it, a sense of Christmas cheer. All around Hogwarts was having its traditional decorations put up, including the 12 Christmas trees that Hagrid dragged in.

The Fateful Eight was still comprehending that Nathan had a crush on Victoria, which was a fair shock.

Natalie teased that they should hang some mistletoe over Nathan's head and then lure an unsuspecting Victoria under it. Then Lily said, "Oooh, yes! We should totally do that!"

And so they hatched their brilliant prank. Eddie was going to be seen talking with Lily at breakfast as usual, and then convince Nathan to meet him in the Room of Requirement. To make sure Victoria didn't hear, Natalie would start up a conversation with her in the Great Hall when she walked in, making sure to wake up super early to make sure that she got to breakfast before Victoria did.

And it all went off without a hitch...or so they thought.

Natalie woke up at around 7:00, which was plenty early for Saturday.

Eddie and Lily pretended to be making plans, which successfully piqued Nathan's interest. He walked over to the Hufflepuff table.

"What's up?" he asked.

"Hey, if it's not too much bother, do you want to have a one on one Quidditch game in the Room?"

"Oh, yeah, sure! Let me go get my broom!"

"Sure, Nate! Meet me there, I already got mine!"

"Where?" asked Nathan, looking suspicious.  
"Oh," replied Eddie, thinking fast, "It's….already there!"

"Really?"

"Really."

Nathan looked like he was about to dispute this, but just shrugged and walked away.  
"Perfect,"

When Nathan left, he dashed over to Natalie.  
"I told him I'll play him in Quidditch, you?"

"I said just meet me, it's a surprise. She bought it."

"Ok," Eddie said. "She _is_ a Ravenclaw, are you sure you couldn't have done anything better?"

"Probably, but," Natalie shrugged, "Oh well."

"Ok, let's go,"

They sprinted to the Room. Eddie walked past it three times, thinking of a Quidditch pitch. When the door appeared, he wrenched it open.

He then thought of mistletoe, which appeared right into his hand. That was the easy part. Now where to hang it?

He thought, Give me an archway door leading to the pitch. Said archway appeared. He opened the door and hung the mistletoe. He then wished for bushes to appear, giving the door an innocent, festive look. He then exited the real door and dashed off to Ravenclaw tower to head Nathan off and distract him while Natalie lured Victoria into the Room.

When Victoria got to the Room, she met Natalie, and the two girls opened the door. Victoria passed under the mistletoe-laced archway and gaped at the Quidditch pitch.

"So this was your surprise?" She asked. "Quidditch?"

"Yep!" said Natalie brightly. "I needed the practice!"

"And...you're going to practice against me, the least fit of all of us?"

"Yep. Come on, it'll be fun!"

Eddie met Nathan just in time.

"Sup Nate! My broom's in the room."

He knocked, which was their pre-organized signal.

Natalie had Victoria positioned just right before answering.

Eddie said to Nathan, "You first.

The blonde-haired Ravenclaw open the door and walked right into the trap.

"Oh-h-hi, V-Vic,"

Victoria turned to Natalie.

"This was all very excellently devised. However," she raised her wand, "_Accio_ _Mistletoe_!"

Nathan was in shock.

"Wait, does th-that mean that th-that was all a p-prank?"

Meanwhile, despite the failure, Natalie and Eddie were laughing uproariously.

"Nathan, you should have seen the look on your _face_!" Natalie exclaimed.

However what happened next wiped the smile off their faces as Nate looked on the verge of tears.

"Oh, Nate, don't…." Natalie said, "We didn't mean to, we thought it was a harmless prank…"

"That was a real jerk thing to do, you know," Victoria piped up. "Bye."

Nate was still standing there, tears still rolling down his face, unable to say anything, until he too, turned and left.

When Victoria returned to the Ravenclaw common room, she found Nathan standing just outside the bronze door knocker, staring at it. She gave the day's riddle ("What has to be broken before it is used?-An egg") and coaxed the inconsolable boy through the door.

"Hey," she nodded to him. "Sorry about that."

"What do you have to be sorry for?" Nathan asked. "You didn't do anything."

"Sorry," she attempted a smile. "Force of habit."

"Stupid Eddie and Natalie."

"It wasn't their fault," she said. "They thought it was harmless. If anything it's mine for revealing the mistletoe. So you can scream at me if you want."

"If I didn't decide to go see that stupid mirror…"

"Hey," Victoria put a hand on his shoulder, speaking more firmly now. "It's not your fault. I've told Eddie and Natalie it was a jerk move to do and they felt bad. Come on, the holidays start tomorrow."

Nathan turned to her and smiled.

"Yeah, you're right. Hey, I've been thinking, you want to get back at them?"

Victoria grinned. "That's the spirit. Let's wait a bit so they don't expect anything."

Meanwhile, back at the Room of Requirement, Eddie and Natalie were still standing around in a stunned silence. Finally Eddie spoke.

"God, I feel awful. Hey, you know what, we need to get them a Christmas present, I'll ask Tom how to order from Diagon Alley by owl."

"Nah, I'll do it, I'll see him tonight in the common room."

"Alright, tell me tomorrow. See you."

"See ya."

They waved bye to each other and departed for their own common rooms, Eddie still feeling extremely guilty.

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The following morning, Eddie saw Nathan in the Great Hall. To Eddie's great surprise, Nathan didn't immediately start yelling at him, but he did take a glare from Victoria, a look that plainly said, _You were such a jerk._

He went over to the Gryffindor table, and Natalie told him that there wasn't an easy way to order from Diagon Alley and still have it reach Hogwarts in time for Christmas. Eddie groaned. He decided to go the the Room of Requirement himself and see if he couldn't make a present of his own. Natalie agreed to help him, as the prank was her idea in the first place.

All afternoon they worked and worked. They summoned tools from the Room when necessary, but tried to make the present themselves. And when they were done, it looked as though it would suffice. When they had wrapped it up, in blue-and-bronze Ravenclaw-style paper, Natalie scribbled a note.

_Nate, Vic,_

_We're sorry. We tried to pull off that prank as fun but now we see that was not fun at all and you, Vic, as a Ravenclaw, would obviously have noticed the mistletoe. We really didn't think that through. Please take this present as a token of our gratitude, and hopefully you don't hate us forever._

_-Natalie Rogers, Eddie Pattinson_

"Let's hold onto this until Christmas, we can give it to them then. Might be able to sneak in their dormitory Christmas Eve. We'll leave it with Nathan."

With a definite uptick in mood, the pair departed the room, Eddie with Nathan's present in hand.


	9. A Poor Boast

Soon, Christmas morning arrived. Having left out Nathan's present for the house-elves the night before, Eddie and Natalie woke up in their respective dormitories in a flurry of excitement and anticipation.

They had also left presents for each one of the other members of the Fateful Eight as well as their housemates and recieving a few in turn. Having no access to Diagon Alley, the presents they got from each other were very limited in nature, often being books or candy. However, Eddie recieved a box of Chocolate Frogs from Ernie, a new quill from Hannah, an American Quidditch team banner from Justin (who knew that Eddie was American), and a few other things. Eddie made sure to give Lily a few books on sports stats, who had distributed most of hers to the Fateful Eight as Christmas gifts.

When they got down to the Great Hall, the enchanted ceiling was snowing. And the food! A hundred fat, roast turkeys; mountains of roast and boiled potatoes; platters of chipolatas; tureens of buttered peas, silver boats of thick, rich gravy and cranberry sauce - and stacks of wizard crackers every few feet along the table.

After Eddie pulled a few wizard crackers with Ernie, Justin, and Wayne, he suggested they all go outside and have a snowball fight. Because he had invited the members of the Fateful Eight along, he also suggested teams of the Fateful Eight against the Hufflepuffs. There were 14 in all, so Lily took the Eight's team, and Eddie took the Hufflepuff team. They played it as a traditional dodgeball-style game. Eddie was pelted early and was the first Puff out, while Lily stayed in fairly long, until Hannah and Susan double-teamed her. Victory for the Hufflepuffs seemed inevitable when Justin, Ernie, and Megan had Natalie all alone, but she somehow dodged every throw and found a way to win.

After that they returned to the common room, cold, tired, hungry, but happy nonetheless, preparing for some hot chocolate by the fire. Nathan approached Eddie and thanked him for the gift, apologizing for overreacting.

"No bother!" Eddie replied. "You need to catch up on your Boston sports history anyway!"

For it was a scrapbook of the finest moments in Red Sox, Patriots, Bruins, and Celtics history until 1991.

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When the rest of the school returned from the holidays, things began to pick up again. The Fateful Eight had spent much of the holiday by their common room fires, drinking cocoa and playing Exploding Snap, and unbeknownst to Eddie and Natalie, they were about to throw the pranking of their lives.

The entire Fateful Eight (besides Eddie and Natalie) were in on it. Nathan, as Eddie, would write an elaborate love letter to Natalie. Tom would hand the letter from Nathan right to Natalie, upholding his story, and Natalie would read it.

Nathan's letter read,

Dearest Natalie,

_I have been watching you for some time now, and I feel that the prank we pulled on Nathan and subsequently, working on his present, has drawn us closer together. Will you, Natalie Margaret Rogers, accept my request to be your boyfriend?_

_Signed,_

_Edward Daniel Pattinson_

But that wasn't the end of it. Victoria also wrote a letter.

_Hey Eddie,_

_I would have told you this while we were working on Nate's present, but I chickened out. I think you're super cute and I really hope that you will date me soon._

_Love,_

_Nat_

They planned to wait until Valentine's Day, which was good, as it gave Eddie and Natalie time to let Christmas slip to the back of their minds. They couldn't wait.

When Valentine's Day arrived, Nathan and Victoria woke up with a grins on their faces. They had sent their letters the previous night to their people on the inside, Tom and Lily. Both had promised to deliver the notes to their respective targets Valentine's morning at breakfast. And so it was when the pair of Ravenclaws arrived at breakfast on that fine day, they sat down and eagerly awaited the results.

Tom and Lily arrived first, and they waved the pieces of parchment at Nathan as they passed. This was good, as Eddie and Natalie would be handed the letters upon their arrival. Eddie walked in first.

Lily didn't hand Eddie his note right away, as he was likely to confront Natalie upon her entrance. When Natalie arrived, then Lily delivered.

"Oh, I was told to give this to you," Lily said offhandedly.

"Who's it from?" Eddie asked.

"You'll see,"

When he flipped open the parchment the look on his face was priceless. It had turned from its normal shade to white to red in less than five seconds. He immediatley scanned the Gryffindor table for Natalie, and met her eyes. She was wearing the same shocked look.

After they finished eating, the pair met up in the Great Hall.

"What was that?" Eddie asked.

"What was _that_?" Natalie replied pointing at Eddie. "I had no idea you felt that way."

"I...didn't write anything." Natalie said.

"Neither did I… who'd you get your letter from?"

"Tom. Something's up. _Lily! Tom! Get over here, now_!" Natalie shouted.

They walked over.

"Did you write these?" Natalie and Eddie asked, holding up the letters.

"No, you did," they replied.

"Do we look stupid to you?" Natalie asked.

"Yes," said Lily, snickering, "because we didn't write them."

"Well, who did?" Eddie inquired.

"Guess."

They thought long and hard until they rolled their eyes over to the Ravenclaw table, where the pair of pranksters looked fit to burst with laughter. They stormed over.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Well, I'd have to say I commend you on the effort," Eddie began.

"But you should have only sent it to one person," Natalie finished.

"Oh we weren't going for that," said Victoria, "we just wanted to see your faces."

"And boy, were they priceless," said Nathan.

"If you were trying to set us up, I'm sorry, it didn't work," Eddie grinned.

"Haha, very funny," snorted Victoria.

They all had a round of laughs before saying bye to one another and heading off for class. Now, finally, things were set right between them.

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Ravenclaw ended up defeating Slytherin in Quidditch later that week, which knocked Slytherin out for the running for the Quidditch Cup, much to the dismay of Sean and Claire. Ravenclaw's record progressed to 1 and 1, which set up "The Lovebird Match" as Nathan and Victoria jokingly called Eddie and Victoria's upcoming match, referring to the prank.

"You need to let Natalie win, Eddie," Nathan teased. "You _are_ the gentleman in your relationship after all,"

"Ha ha, very funny," Eddie retorted. Eddie knew that he deserved the retaliatitory prank, and he thoroughly enjoyed it.

Lily informed him before the game that no Hufflepuff team had gotten off to a 2-0 start since 1956. This put pressure on Eddie even more to come through, as he desperately wanted to win the cup before his other Quidditch-playing friends.

When that day arrived, on the ninth of March, he didn't disappoint. He shot right out of the gate, scoring the first four goals, and according to Lily, was the first Chaser to score the first four goals for his team since James Dayer of Slytherin in 1904.

Hufflepuff ended up leading, 190-70.

It was at that point Eddie went into a panic attack, as he just Natalie had just started speeding for the Snitch. Quickly doing the math and reacting almost instinctively, Eddie shouted at Ernie once more,

"Give me the Quaffle!"

Then, tucking it under his arm like a running back, just tore through every Gryffindor player, heading for Oliver Wood and firing as hard as he could toward the open hoop.

As soon as the goal went through Eddie turned around and there was Natalie, holding the Snitch up high.

Madam Hooch blew her whistle. Confusion and chaos ensued.

Immediatley the two captains, Terry and Oliver, flew over to Madam Hooch.

"Eddie had the Quaffle through, we win!"

"No, Natalie caught the Snitch, _we_ win!"

Madam Hooch blew her whistle again. She ordered a free shot for Hufflepuff and if they, meaning Eddie, missed, the game would go to Gryffindor.

Eddie flew forward to take the penatly, wind whistling in his ears. One swerve left, one swerve right, he held the Quaffle in front of Wood's face and…

Whipped it through the empty left hoop! They'd won! They'd won!

In the aftermath, he found Natalie and apologized sheepishly for being too quick.

"Ahh," she said grinning. "We'll beat Ravenclaw and then we'll win the Cup, don't you worry."

Eddie wanted to reply but was swept away in a joyous sea of black and yellow, and then looked into Justin's exhilarated face.

"Who says Chasers are useless! Way to go!"

The party that day lasted longer than the previous one, and well into the night.

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The morning after, Eddie was sitting, talking with Lily about the match when out of the blue, a certain pale-haired blonde Slytherin strolled up to him.

"Bet you think you're a Quidditch genius, Pattinson."

"N-no…."

"Good," Malfoy drawled. "Because no Mudblood will _ever_ be good at _anything_."

Justin, who was also nearby started to object, but Eddie was a step ahead.

"Anything, Draco?"

"That's right."

Looking at the stupid smirk on Malfoy's face, Eddie was even more excited at what he was about to do.

"Then beat me in a game of baseball," he smiled, "and we'll prove it."

Malfoy was taken aback. "_What_ in the world is baseball?"

"It's a Muggle sport."

"I think you misunderstand me, Pattinson. I only play _civilized_ games. Father would _never_ catch me dead in a Muggle activity."

"No...you said you could beat me at anything. Isn't that right, Lily?"

"Yep!"

"What- I-"

"Meet me on the Quidditch pitch on the 27th of April at three o'clock. Sharp.

"Can you at least explain the rules?" he drawled in a bored voice.

Eddie's face twisted into an evil grin.

"Oh...no no no…..for Draco Malfoy is simply flawless at everything he does, correct?"

"Yes!" he replied indignantly.

"Then you should have no trouble at all," he said happily. "Good luck."

And with that, he left Draco shock-shelled, standing there, gaping, unable to comprehend what he had just agreed to.


	10. The Game

As soon as Malfoy walked away, Eddie found the others and summoned them to the room. They arrived and he turned to face them.

"Well, Lily, you know why we're here, for the rest of you…"

He then delved into the story of setting Malfoy up to fail. Nathan and a few others laughed, but Tom looked concerned.

"But, Eddie, none of us know how to play baseball besides you and Nathan."

"That's...the second reason why we're here. Grab a bat."

He indicated the rack of bats against the wall, thought again, and a basic baseball diamond materialized under them.

For the next hour, Eddie and Nathan walked around the others, and critiqued them on where they were going wrong. Sean had a problem with swinging the bat like a tennis racket, with one hand.

"No, you've got to put two hands on the bat, like this." He demonstrated the proper way.

After a while, he had Nathan pitch to the others, while he caught.

Meanwhile, back at the Slytherin common room, Draco Malfoy was pacing up and down between Crabbe and Goyle.

"So, do either of you know what baseball is?

Two noncommittal grunts followed, issuing from each thug.

Malfoy scoffed. "I expected nothing more from you dunderheads. Well, I'm off to the library then. See if I can't find anything."

Malfoy spent hours that afternoon looking for any information until he struck gold.

"What's this?"

He had just spotted a worn piece of parchment.

"The Beginner's Guide to Baseball. By Lily Jackson. Oh. Ohoho. Hello…."

He looked left, looked right, and then took the paper.

Little did he know that Lily was doing some research nearby, so the parchment's absence was quickly spotted.

When Lily dashed over, she was shocked, then immediately ran to tell Eddie and the others.

She arrived at the Room of Requirement, out of breath.

"Eddie!" she panted. "Someone took my paper I was writing, I think it was Malfoy, the one about the beginner's guide to-

"Hold on a minute, what are you on about, Lily, breathe!" Eddie exclaimed.

"I was writing a paper about baseball to give to the others...and Malfoy, or one of his cronies, took it!"

"How much did you write?" Eddie inquired.

"Too much…" she said, biting her lip nervously

"Well, now, we'll be on an even playing field, won't we?" he grinned, trying to make the best out of the situation.

And he went back to training the others. The Americans had caught on pretty quickly, the British...not so much. Still in their cricket mindset, he supposed.

"Well," Malfoy was saying to Crabbe and Goyle. "That idiot mudblood Jackson decided to leave her guide out for us. We're lucky. Blaise?"

A tall, black boy stood up and walked over.

"What did you need, Draco?"

"I'm putting together a-" he checked the paper "bass-ball team, and I need you to help recruit players. It says here we need nine, so five more should suffice."

"Will do. I take it-" he added, "that the Stephens and Davidson mudbloods will not be joining us?'

"No. I despise them. They bring insult to our founder. How such _filth_ got into our purity is beyond me."

"Well, off with you, Zabini," he drawled, clapping his hands. "I'm going to sit down and read this thing.."

The weeks passed, and both Eddie's and Malfoy's teams were getting stronger, though Eddie had the slight edge. Eddie had spoken to Dumbledore about this little challenge, and Dumbledore thought it was a wonderful idea. And so he made the challenge public.

"It has come to my attention," he said, addressing the school, "that there is a little challenge going on." His eyes twinkled. "Misters Pattinson and Malfoy have decided to engage in a friendly competition in the Muggle sport of baseball. Pattinson has told me the game will take place on the Quidditch pitch on the 27th of April at three o'clock, which I thought was an excellent suggestion. Therefore, I have decided to, er, "up the stakes," as you will, Pattinson and Malfoy have already given me their team rosters. If Pattinson's team wins- 60 points to Hufflepuff, 40 to Gryffindor, 40 to Ravenclaw, and 40 to Slytherin. If Malfoy's team wins- 180 points to Slytherin."

Malfoy, who was sulking at the Slytherin table, perked up at this a little.

The Hogwarts staff were able to obtain some baseball gear for the game, so when the day arrived, they were ready and set to play.

A makeshift baseball field was constructed inside the Quidditch pitch, albeit with shortened dimensions from the professional level - 40 feet from home plate to the pitcher's mound, and 60 feet between bases.

The two rosters were tacked up on each dugout.

**MUGGLE-BORN MAGIC**

_Team Captain-Eddie Pattinson_

_Pitcher-Nathan Turner_

_Catcher-Natalie Rogers_

_First base-Sean Stephens_

_Second base-Eddie Pattinson_

_Shortstop-Lily Jackson_

_Third base-Claire Davidson_

_Right field-Tom Hewett_

_Center field-Justin Finch-Fletchley_

_Left field-Victoria Parker_

**SLYTHERIN SERPENTS**

_Team Captain-Draco Malfoy_

_Pitcher-Draco Malfoy_

_Catcher-Marcus Flint_

_First base-Vincent Crabbe_

_Second base-Blaise Zabini_

_Shortstop-Peregrine Derrick_

_Third base-Lucian Bole_

_Right field-Gregory Goyle_

_Center field-Cassius Warrington_

_Left field-Adrian Pucey_

The Quidditch changing rooms served as clubhouses for the two teams.

While they were waiting for the OK from Madam Hooch, Eddie stood up.

"Listen guys," he began, taking a deep breath. "I know we're the better team. I know we've had baseball experience, at least some of us, and I know the ones who haven't have worked hard. Really hard."

He looked around.

"But promise me one thing. _Do not_, I repeat, _do not_ take these guys for granted. They know how to play."

Lily buried her face in her hands.  
"Hey, hey," Eddie said walking over. "It's not your fault, you didn't think Malfoy would be smart enough to take the paper."

He turned around, looking each of them in the eye.

"Now go out there and win."

As the two teams walked out to the field, the Quidditch pitch was more quiet than it usually was. Perhaps because this was a Muggle sport, perhaps it was new, Eddie didn't know or care. All he wanted to do was win.

"And it'll be Draco Malfoy, batting first for Slytherin," Lee Jordan's voice rang out. "Unfortunately, I don't have my assistant, she's down there on the field. This is certainly an _unusual_ event, but I quite like it. And now we await Nathan Turner's first pitch…"

Moments later, Eddie appeared to be reconsidering this whole endeavor.

Nathan threw a fastball, which Malfoy jumped on and hammered a drive out to deep left-center and over the fence for a home run and a 1-0 lead.

"Told you, Pattinson, I am perfect at everything I do!" he laughed heartily as he passed.

He seemed to have proved just that in the bottom of the frame by striking out Victoria, Sean, and Justin.

The score was still 1-0 in the bottom of the second, as Nathan had gotten the next six hitters out.

"And here's Pattinson, hoping to get payback from Malfoy."

He never got the chance, as Malfoy hit him in the helmet with his first pitch. This got a few growls from the Hufflepuff section of the stands, particulary Ernie, Susan and Hannah.

"I'm gonna kill him." Hannah muttered. Susan had to restrain her.

"He's fine, Hannah," she told her. "Look."  
For Eddie had gotten up and dusted himself off, and trotted to first base without a word.

"Sorry Madam Hooch!" Malfoy called out. "It just slipped!"

On the next pitch, Eddie dashed for second.

"Malfoy!" Flint shouted, and tried to whip the ball over his head, but nailed the blonde Slytherin square in the nose, and he crumpled to the ground.

In the confusion, Eddie scampered for third, then headed home and scored. They were tied.

As the innings passed, it became apparent that Malfoy had in fact trained his team well. Malfoy was not pitching well for his part, but he kept getting saved by his defense. Zabini made an excellent catch of a screaming liner by Claire to keep the bases loaded and end the 4th. Warrington fell to his knees and hung on to a ball hit by Natalie in the 6th. Not that Eddie's team was playing badly. Tom reached over the fence and stole another home run from Malfoy, which led to a heated argument with the umpire, Madam Hooch.

The game reached the eighth, still tied.

"And it'll be Pattinson again leading off." Lee's voice called. "Still no hits for him, though he scored that crucial run in the second. "

On the first pitch from Malfoy, who had struck him out earlier, Eddie made perfect contact and lined the ball back up the middle. Draco ducked and allowed the ball to skip into center field. Eddie was on. He tapped his helmet twice, which started the chain of signals he had planned. Nathan rubbed his batting gloves together-he got the sign. Natalie pointed at Eddie, which meant that she got the sign.

_Well then_, Eddie thought._ All systems go_.

Malfoy delivered, Eddie made for second again. This time, Flint had the sense to throw a laser to Zabini covering, not Draco's face. Eddie slid in safely, however. Next pitch, Nathan bunted, to the bewilderment of most of the Slytherin players. Malfoy though, was on it, and threw towards first. All according to plan. Eddie took third. They tried bunting again with Natalie, only this time, Eddie started running before the pitch was even out of Malfoy's hand. Natalie made contact with the ball and it dropped in fair territory. Eddie scored- a perfect suicide squeeze bunt.

Now with their first lead of the game, Nathan recorded the first out, Zabini. Eddie ordered Nathan to walk Goyle intentionally. Which Nathan complied. Eddie had another trick up his sleeve. It was Malfoy up again, and he was looking for revenge. Expecting another fastball-Lily's pamphlet had elaborated on the different kinds of pitches, and he guessed wrong-a curveball. He popped it up behind second. Already frustrated with himself, he screamed at Goyle to run. As Goyle was Malfoy's ever-obedient minion, he did so. Malfoy realized his mistake, but too late. Eddie made the catch, and flipped it to Sean, and that was the game.

Malfoy was in shock.

"B-but-" he stammered. "B-but I'm perfect! This can't be!"

"Hate to break it to ya, Drakey." Eddie came over in a jovial way. "But you aren't. I had Natalie tell you that it was a fastball so you'd crush it. Boosting your self-esteem. Then, I sent my three worst hitters to the plate so you'd strike 'em all out. That's just how it goes sometimes." And he left to join the celebrations. Malfoy didn't even say anythinh, he was just too stunned. He regained his composure briefly, though.

"Mudblood filth. Whatever is Father going to say?"


	11. Through the Trapdoor

Things returned to normal after the game. Malfoy stopped taunting Eddie and the Fateful Eight in the corridors. They had recieved house points just as Dumbledore had promised. Yet there was still something odd.

Quirrell had not tried anything fishy since Eddie's first Quidditch practice. Defense Against the Dark Arts classes went normally enough, yet he kept getting strange looks from the professor. Nothing any more out of the ordinary after that, though. Until one Friday…

Eddie was sitting and talking with Ernie and Justin in class waiting for Quirrell to start the lesson, when the professor walked over to their table.

"P-Pattinson, J-Jackson, D-Davidson, S-Stephens," he called. Their heads turned. "If you w-would s-see me after cl-class, p-please."

They thought nothing of it. When the bell rang, they walked up to his desk. The brisk tone of his voice instead of his usual stammer told them the game was up.

"I was walking in the hall just the other day," he began coldly. "And passed Mr. Hewett and Miss Rogers."

Eddie exchanged a silent, terrified glance with the other three. _He knew_.

"Quite curious things, they were saying..I caught a few words, notably: stone, Quirrell, traps, and the most curious-your names. Care to divulge anything?"

When no one said anything, Quirrell pressed on.

"I am warning each one of you," he spoke, looking at each one of them in turn with such coldness that Eddie shuddered. "Meddle in my plans...and I will not hesitate in killing you. Report to Dumbledore..same thing. Have I made myself clear?" he asked sharply.

"Y-yes, P-Professor," Eddie stuttered.

"Good. You are dismissed."

They immediately went to find the others, who were coming out of Herbology.

"He knows," Lily told them breathlessly, without any pretense whatsoever. "Quirrell knows."

She then delved into what Quirrell had told them he overheard.

When she finished, they looked around at each other, stunned.

"B-but...we don't know when he goes for the stone.." Natalie said anxiously, looking at Tom. "Do we?"

"No," said Tom, wiping his glasses. "We can guess."

"I've got a better idea," said Sean, speaking up. "Let's ask Snape."

"What, like he'd know?" Nathan snorted.

"No...but he keeps a better watch on Quirrell than we do…"

They dashed off to the professor's office. He looked bewildered to see them all, but seeing their faces, he ushered them inside.

"Very well, now, what is the matter?" he asked the Fateful Eight at large.

"You've been watching Quirrell, right?" Eddie asked.

"I have...why?" Snape asked, looking at him. "Has something happened?"

"Well…" Eddie continued, and proceeded to tell Snape what Quirrell had said. Snape's look shifted from one of intrigue to one of concern.

"Very well. I shall keep continuing to watch Professor Quirrell, and you will know if anything's up."

The weeks continued to pass as the calendar flipped from May to June, and still no word from Snape. Eddie remembered that Harry was unable to play in the final Quidditch match of the year, and he desperately wanted to avoid that happening to him. Then, one June day, as Eddie and a few other Hufflepuffs were studying by the lake when Snape strolled visibly up to them.

"Mr. Pattinson, Miss Jackson," he said, indicating them both. "It's time."

The other Hufflepuffs looked extremley perplexed. "Time for what?"

"That," Snape told them, "is none of your concern."

"It's alright," Lily told the rest, "We'll tell you later,"

"Alright," Ernie said, looking totally bewildered and eyeing Snape suspiciously.

When they were out of earshot, Eddie immediatley asked where the others were.

"They have already gathered in my office. You two were the last."

When they arrived, Snape turned to face them dramatically.

"Now," he said, clasping his hands. "I can't help you with much, but I can grant you safe passage to the third-floor corridor, and I can tell you how to get past at least one aspect. Myself and a number of professors granted protection to the Stone in a variety of ways. My contribution was in the form of a riddle, in which seven potions lie before oneself, and only two being Fire Protection Potions. Whomever of you wishes to face Quirrell would do to drink the smallest potion, but beware-Quirrell is not an inept wizard, and he has the aid of the Dark Lord to boot. Now then, in a few hours' time, we should be off. Quirrell won't suspect himself to be followed, and will handle some of the obstacles for us."

And so they waited. At approximately nine thirty, Snape gave them the OK and led the way out of his office. They hit one snag along the way, which was quickly (and in Eddie's mind) awesomely handled by Snape.

Filch was making his usual rounds along with Mrs. Norris prowling the corridors for any students out of bed when he caught them.

"Aha!" he shrieked, and his jowls quivered. "Students out of bed! This'll mean detention, it will, mark my words!"

"No need, Argus," Snape sneered silkily. "They're with me."

"Oho!" Filch responded "With, you, are they?"

"Precisely."

"Very well."

And he let them pass. On they went. Finally, they reached the place.

"Well," Snape drawled, turning to face them once more. "I have assisted in every way that I can. I wish you all the best of luck."

He bade them good bye and returned to his office.

"Well," Tom said. "This is it,"

He managed a half smile and stepped through. The rest followed.

Fluffy was asleep, as they expected, yet Eddie was astounded to actually see him.

Wow…

Quickly they slipped under the trapdoor and down onto Devil's Snare below, and got out with ease, as they stayed calm and didn't panic. They then went past the unconsious troll and burst into the flying key room.

They had Nathan hop onto Quirrell's abandoned broom, as he was the best flyer, and he was able to catch the key quickly and stick it into the keyhole, and they progressed further.

But something didn't sit well with Eddie. It was all too easy. He quickly reassured himself, however, that it was harder for the Golden Trio because they didn't know what they were doing.

When they reached the chess room, they naturally turned to Tom, the master tactician. Tom, however, looked worried and was biting his lip.

"Guys, I have to admit something," he sighed. "I've never played chess and I barely know how."

So, essentially, they were on their own. No background knowledge, no Ron-like chess experience. What were they to do?

They first had to decide on what positions they were to assume. Victoria wanted to be the queen, so Eddie jokingly suggested that Nathan be the king. Nathan blushed at this and muttered, "I'm fine being a bishop…" Tom was a knight. Eddie was a rook. Lily was the other rook. The others were pawns.

White went first, naturally, and the game began.

They took turns taking the reigns on directing the other pieces. Their first real spot of bother was when the opposing queen was in danger of taking out Victoria, but Lily swooped in and saved her. Eddie was the first one to be knocked out, as a sacrifice play where he set it up for one of the white knights being taken out. He wasn't expecting it to be as painful as it was. It took him a little to regain his breathing, as he had the wind knocked out of him. Soon to follow, Claire and Sean.

The game came down to Tom, Victoria, the other bishop and a few pawns against the queen, king, and two rooks. Victoria moved in range of the opposing queen once more, who was bearing down on Tom. Fortunatley but suprisingly, the queen took the bait.

Victoria said later that the last thing she remembered was a giant stone sword swinging right at her midsection before being blown backwards agains the brick wall and blacking out.

"_VICTORIA_!" Nathan screamed and ran to her. He pulled out his wand. "_Rennervate_!" She opened her eyes.

"Oh, thank God."

"Oh, Nathan it's you.." She yawned. "W-where am I? And _owww_ my head…" She groaned, rubbing it.

"I'm going to take her to the hospital wing, alright?" Nathan told the group.

Eddie nodded and turned his attention back to Tom.

Tom was deep in thought. He had that calculating look the rest of the Fateful Eight had come to associate with him. Finally he reached a decision.

"Pawn to E6, check."

The queen moved over to protect the king from the pawn and then-

"Bishop to D6, check mate." They'd won. Tom sighed in relief as the chess pieces let them pass.

The six of them crowded in the potion room.

"Remember," Tom told them, "Snape told us to drink the smallest one, which is this. He held it up. "So. Who's it gonna be?"

"I'll do it" Eddie said to much surprise.

"Eddie, are you sure?" Tom asked.

"Yep." His mind was set.

"Alright then." Tom looked skeptical, but he handed Eddie the potion.

Eddie drank the potion and one gulp, shuddered as it coursed through his body and stared into the jet- black flames.

"Now go make Hufflepuff proud," Tom said and grinned.

"I will."

He stepped through the fire.


	12. The Battle for the Stone

As expected, when Eddie walked through the black flames, Quirrell was standing there.

"I hear you have a new host, Tom. Or should I call you Lord Voldemort?"

Quirrell turned. "Mr. Pattinson. You survived."

Eddie smirked. "Surprised?"

"Your arrogance blinds you. Now you will experience the full power of my wrath."

He began to unwrap his turban. Underneath it "was the scarred, deformed face of one Lord Voldemort.

Eddie, quippy as ever, remarked, "Somebody aged well."

Voldemort hissed.

"I was just examining this interesting mirror...but I'm confused. What does this mirror do? How does it work?"

Instantly, Eddie remembered his Occlumency lessons, and shut his mind so Quirrell couldn't see.

"_Use the boy_…" Voldemort hissed once more.

Quirrell looked up. "Come here, Pattinson!" he shouted. "Now!"

Reluctantly, Eddie walked forward.

"Now, look into the mirror, and tell me what you see!" Quirrell barked.

Still concentrating on his Occlumency, Eddie said, "I see my seven friends having many adventures at Hogwarts, and having a lot of fun." Eddie told the professor. He felt the stone drop into his pocket.

"Then this mirror shows the impossible!" Quirrell spat.

Eddie grinned cheekily. "It sure does, Professor Squirrell!" He dashed back towards the flames at a run.

"_Stop him_!" Voldemort screeched.

Quirrell was helpless to do anything.

Eddie was ready to leap through the black, flickering fire, the stone his, Quirrell to rot, but then he realized-he drank all of the Fire Protection Potion. Slowly, and with great dread, he turned to face Quirrell.

Quirrell smirked. "So…your brilliant idea was not so brilliant after all."

"Expelli-" Eddie began, but it was blocked.

"I really don't have time for games, Pattinson, so if you could just hand me that stone in your pocket, and we'll be off."

Eddie looked down, horror-struck, then back at Quirrel-mort. Slowly, he walked over.

"_Good….Goood_," Voldemort hissed for a third time. _Now hand me the stone and I shall let you free_….

Eddie scowled. "Whatever." He purposley spoke nonchalantly, so as to draw Voldemort off guard.

He offered the stone, and then, before Quirrell could take it-

"_Stupefy!_" He drew his wand quickly, and this time Quirrell was too slow. He fell to the ground.

Immediatley he scampered off towards the flames to think-now with time that was albeit limited-but he never got there. He tripped and fell -doink- banging his head on the steps and knocking himself out.

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When he came to, he was greeted by a roar of colors and whiz-bangs.

Tom was furiously battling Quirrell, along with Natalie, Lily, and Nathan.

"What the-"

"Eddie!" Lily dashed over to him.

"The hell's going on here?"

"Okay so-" Lily tried to explain, but ducked a missed curse from Quirrell instead. "So you know that potion resets itself right?"

"What pot-ohhhh," Eddie realized, eyes wide.

"Yep, every five minutes."

"So..I've been out...what?" he asked, counting heads, "twenty minutes?"

"Yep. Quirrell was about to take the stone but Natalie arrived just in time and hexed him."

Seeing clearly now, Eddie was able to notice Quirrell's shoes doing a furious tap dance. He laughed, and barely had time to pick himself up before he heard a noise from behind him. He whipped around.

"_Dumbledore!_" he exclaimed.

For the aged wizard had just stepped through the flames.

"Ah, Quirinus," Dumbledore greeted Quirrell calmly. "Unfortunately, this does mean you will be fired, I hope you know."

Tom laughed. "Good one sir!" as he dodged another hex from Quirrell. Dumbledore's eyes twinkled.

"Thank you, Mr. Hewett...but now is not the time for jokes, I apologize."

Dumbledore took out his wand. "_Impedimenta!_" he boomed. Quirrell was frozen in place.

"Now, quickly," Dumbledore motioned over to them. "Take Fawkes, he'll get you out of here. Leave me to deal with Quirrell!"

Without question they listened. Eddie was alarmed when Fawkes started to head for the black flames, but one quick _whoosh_ and they were through, back into the potion room, back into the chess room, back into the flying key room, and up the Devil's Snare pit, where they were dropped off by Fluffy, who was still sleeping. Quietly, they tip-toed back to their common room.

Eddie creaked open the door of the Hufflepuff boys' dormitory to find Ernie, Justin, and Wayne fast asleep. He and within minutes, seconds it seemed, he was also asleep.

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The following morning, when they went down to the Great Hall, Dumbledore was standing at his owl-shaped stand ready to make an announcement. Eddie could only guess what…

"Where _were_ you two?" Ernie asked Eddie and Lily. Lily began to explain but was interrupted. "You'll find out."

"Settle down," Dumbledore told the school in what was more of a Gambon-esque like manner to Eddie than a Harris-esque one; Dumbeldore sounded strict and severe.

"I have an-" he hesitated for the briefest of margins- "an announcement to make. Incidentally, it does relate to the fact that Professor Quirrell is not at breakfast with us this morning."

His tone soon changed into that Eddie more associated with Harris' Dumbledore, kindly and approachable.

"But before we reach that aspect of my intrusion upon your fine meal- there are some house points I need to award."

"To Misters Thomas Hewett, Edward Pattinson, Nathan Turner, and Sean Stephens, and Misses Natalie Rogers, Lily Jackson, Victoria Parker, and Claire Davidson; for exceptional bravery rarely seen from first years, in the face of threats, challenges, and mortal peril, and for protecting a powerful magical object while doing so-I award each of you one hundred points."

As each house was recieving points, applause broke out in every corner of the hall.

"Now, for the circumstances of their actions-" he hesitated again. "Please, sit down," he added, noticing some of the students had gotten up to clap.

"This past year, as very few of you know, Hogwarts has been home to the Sorcerer's Stone. For those of you who do not know what it is or why it is important, I shall explain. The Sorcerer's Stone exudes a magical substance known as the Elixir of Life, which allows the drinker to become immortal."

Whispers broke out like tiny fires all across the hall. Dumbledore continued.

"It appeared that Professor Quirrell had a secret ambition. Quirrell attempted to steal the stone for himself, but was thwarted by these eight with the help and aid of Professor Snape. Thank you, Professor." Dumbledore paused again, to allow Snape to recieve some applause of his own, and in those few seconds Eddie noticed something. Dumbledore had not mentioned Voldemort. This was probably due to the fact that it would cause a needless panic, so he stayed quiet.

"Now then. There is absolutley nothing anyone has to be worried about. Quirrell has been dismissed and sent off to Azkaban, and the stone has been destroyed. Back to your feast, everyone!"

Ernie leaned over the table, "Mate, what was _that_ all about?"

Eddie whispered, "Get the rest of the Hufflepuffs in our year in the Room of Requirement at six o'clock."

Eddie went to tell the rest of the Fateful Eight, so that they'd be ready as well.

The rest of the day seemed to fly. Eddie spent most of it just hanging out in the common room, staring at the plants and trying to process the situation. At five thirty, he got up and left the room, headed for the Room of Requirement.

When he got there, he was glad to see he was the first, so he could create a peaceful environment.

_Give me the Hogwarts grounds_, he thought. And so they appeared.

When the rest arrived, he assembled the Fateful Eight on one side, the Hufflepuffs on the other. Him and Lily stood in the middle.

Eddie took a deep breath. He believed he trusted every single one of them. "Listen….I'm not from here."

"What do you mean?" Hannah asked. "We know you're from America."

"No, nothing like that. I mean… I'm not from this universe. I'm from an alternate universe where all of this is fiction, so my friends"-he indicated the Fateful Eight behind him. "We're on a mission. In our universe Harry Potter is the main character in a seven book series, the first of which is taking place now. Harry survives the Killing Curse in this universe, obviously."

"That's actually kind of cool," said Ernie. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"I didn't think that you'd believe me. I mean, I'm also from the future, so even Justin here doesn't know about iPhones and PlayStations. The year is 2019, to be exact."

"Whoa."

"Just don't tell anyone, okay?"Eddie asked. "I really don't want Voldemort capturing me and torturing me for information. Yes he's alive," Eddie said to the shock and astonishment of the Hufflepuffs, "he has survived through Horcruxes. He was possessing Quirrell. You know how Dumbledore said Quirrell acted of his own accord? He wasn't. Dumbledore just didn't want to scare you.

"What?! You mean to tell me-" Susan began.

"Yep," Eddie said grimly. "Harry didn't kill him, but he does eventually."

"_Eventually! When?!_"

"May 2nd, 1998, to be precise. He fully regains his body at the end of fourth year, and after the Minister ignores him for a year out of fear for his job…he ends up taking over in seventh year."

"But Dumbledore can stop him, right?" Wayne asked.

Eddie bit his lip. How should he put this? Doing it with Dumbledore was easy, as he knew he was close to his time. But with first years, not so much. He remembered how Harry thought Dumbledore would live forever, so, he figured that they would react just the same, if not worse, to his death. He took a deep breath.

"Actually…. no. Dumbledore dies in the sixth book. Snape kills him."

This stopped the rest of the Hufflepuffs cold.

"_Snape_?" Ernie asked. But he's a _teacher_."

"Yeah, and he's also a triple agent."

"Don't you mean double?" Justin asked.

"No, triple. Snape's story is complicated, you won't really understand. It's actually the most complicated in the series. Just remember that even when he does it, he's still on our side."

"So, Eddie…" Justin asked. "You said Harry Potter kills Voldemort, right? But he's not...here. How are we supposed to kill him?"

"That's our mission," Lily said, speaking up for the first time. "We've got to destroy Voldemort's horcruxes and kill him because Harry can't." At this Eddie watched everyone flinch for the umpteenth time.

"Why do you say _his_ name?" Megan asked. "Why?"

"Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself," Eddie told them. He knew Dumbledore quotes like the back of his hand. He took a deep breath. "Well, thanks for not freaking out."

"Mate, we're still trying to comprehend this," Ernie said.

"I wish I could have told you less bluntly," said Eddie, clapping a hand on Ernie's shoulder. "Sorry."

"Nah, it's okay, just..give me a minute."

"Just remember one thing, you're certainly not fictious here. Everyone's fiction in some reality."

"Alright, thanks."

After that tiny shock, the school came back down to normal. Eddie was taken aback briefly when he realized he still needed to train for the final Quidditch match of the year, and as they didn't have a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, he used those lessons as extra training. Often he would simply use the Room of Requirement, but occasionally, if it was warm enough out he would go to the actual pitch and practice. Finally, the day came.

The standings read thus:

Hufflepuff 2-0

Slytherin 1-1

Gryffindor 1-1

Ravenclaw 0-2

Ravenclaw was clearly out of the running, but so too was Gryffindor, because even if Gryffindor won and Hufflepuff lost, Hufflepuff would finish ahead via a tiebreaker. It was Slytherin they had to worry about. If Slytherin beat Hufflepuff, they would both finish at 2-1 with Slytherin getting the tiebreaker. And so it was with these stats in mind that Eddie marched down to the pitch. He had quite the memorable morning, with Professor Snape greeting him like this-

"Well, Pattinson, now that you've defeated a Dark Lord, a little game of Quidditch should be no problem for you, should it?"

Eddie smiled. Snape wasn't stupid, he was a Legilimens. He was making a direct reference to the _Sorcerer's Stone_ movie because he'd seen it in Eddie's mind.

"No, sir."

Before the game, Terry gathered his team in the changing rooms.

"Alright team. No matter what happens on that pitch, I have to say I'm proud of you for this season. Especially you, Ernie and Eddie. There's a reason they didn't let first years fly before this year, and you've stepped up a lot. Let's have fun, and try to come away with a win, alright?"

The two teams walked out on to the pitch, and in what had become a custom with the members of the Fateful Eight, Sean and Eddie wished each other luck.

Madam Hooch released the balls, and off they went.

Eddie was perfoming admirably for his part, scoring four goals, and Hufflepuff led, 100-40. However, that's as good as it got for the Badgers, because shortly after the fourth goal, Sean caught the Snitch, much to their dismay. Final score: Slytherin 190, Hufflepuff 100. The cup belonged to Slytherin for the eighth straight year.

Before Eddie knew it, he was sitting in the Great Hall for the end of year feast. The banners that were hanging in the rafters were not colored, as Eddie had made a request to Dumbledore to start doing a surprise reveal every year of the House Cup champion. Dumbledore had obliged.

"Sit down," he instructed them.

"Now, to our older students, you may notice a little change in decoration. I thought it'd be fun to reveal the House Cup winner in a more dramatic sense, as you can see-" he indicated the wall behind him- "the stones that keep track of house points have been removed. Now, before I blither on any longer, the winners. In fourth place, with four hundred seventy seven points...Ravenclaw House" A smatter of polite applause followed.

"In third place, with five hundred eleven points...Gryffindor House." Louder cheers.

"In second place, with five hundred twenty one points...Slytherin House!"

What happened next was nothing short of pandemonium. All rising at once, it seemed, the Hufflepuffs were on their feet, chanting, cheering-this was the first Hufflepuff house cup win since 1974. All Dumbledore had to do was make it official.

"And in first place...with five hundred and fifty five points…_Hufflepuff wins the House Cup_!" He clapped his hands, and the blank white banners evolved in to that of the black and yellow color scheme of the Hufflepuff crest, emblazoned on the top with the house mascot, the badger.

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The hardest thing Eddie had to do was pack up.

He was staring at his suitcase, knowing that this day was coming, but he wasn't quite sure if he wanted to. Finally, he relented, and headed down to Hogsmeade Station with the others.

"So, back to the Leaky Cauldron, then?" he asked Lily when he met her at the platform.  
"Yep," Lily sighed.

It was at that moment that a letter materialized out of thin air and fluttered into Eddie's very surprised hands. He caught it and opened it. It was written in fine red cursive.

_Dear Eddie,_

_Firstly I want to congratulate you on a successful first year. Most of the others I've tried have failed. As such, I want to reward you and your friends. Because you've expressed your distaste at returning to the Leaky Cualdron, I've given you a house in the country for which you can spend your summers. The address is listed below- it's in a Muggle village, so no need to worry asking for directions. I've also noticed that you and Lily spend the most time out of any of the "Fateful Eight"- nice name, by the way -with your housemates, so this house is close to Eddie, Hannah, and Justin's. This house also provides food and drink, so you need not worry about cooking. I hope you enjoy it, and I wish you luck in your future adventures. Once again, my congratulations to you._

_Yours sincerely, the Bringer of Balance._

Eddie passed the letter around for the rest to read. They high-fived each other, and then they boarded the train, excited for another year.


	13. A Tough Riddle

When they got off the train, Eddie looked at the address on the note from the Bringer of Balance-but it wasn't an address. Instead, it was a list of directions to find a Portkey, which would take off at 9:00 p.m. Confused, he looked at the rest of the Fateful Eight, who just shrugged their shoulders.

"Well, it says upon entering the station, look for a West Ham jersey hanging up on the wall. Anyone familiar with Premier League soccer?" Upon which Sean started jumping excitedly up and down. "Familiar with Premier League soccer? Of course, I'm a huge fan! A West Ham fan, in fact! My absolute favorite player is Mark Noble. He's been with West Ham since 2004, didn't you know?..." He rambled on and on about West Ham for a solid five minutes before Claire shut him up.

"Honestly, Stephens."

"What, I'm _Stephens _now?" he retorted.

"As long as you're annoying."

"Alright," said Eddie, grinning. "You two be quiet, now. Sean, go find that jersey."

Within an additional five minutes Sean had located the jersey. He gathered the others around and they waited. At 8:59 they decided to start putting their hands on it.

"Oh I know who this jersey belongs to, he was my father's fav-"

"_Stephens, shut it_!"

Before Sean could retort, the Portkey took off in a whirlwind of color. Eddie felt the sensation of something being pulled behind his navel, and they were off.

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When they landed, very ungracefully, they were in a cozy woodland location. They looked around. In front of them was a modest wood cabin. They weren't all that impressed, however when they stepped inside, their jaw dropped.

The walls and floor were made of fine marble. The house was larger than it looked on the outside, with five stories of pure upper class. There was no other way to describe it. Eddie let out a small "Wow". Then he remembered what the Bringer had said about the house providing food and drink. Eddie said, "Cheese pizza," and one appeared right in front of him.

"Cool!" Nathan chimed in. "Pepsi!" The carbonated drink showed up right in his hand.

They had fun with that neat facet for a while, and, a while later, after many food comas and stomachaces, they went to bed, with stupid grinning expressions on their faces. This was going to be a fun summer…

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About a week later, Eddie owled the rest of the Hufflepuffs in his year, asking if they wanted to come over. To which most of them agreed, however Wayne declined due to him being on vacation in Italy. They too, were amazed.

"Wow, Eddie!" Justin exclaimed. "How'd you get this?"

Eddie explained to him that the Bringer of Balance had given them this house. Him being a Hufflepuff though, he put it extremely modestly.

"...it was purely out of the niceness of his heart, though, we're extremely lucky to have it." He blushed. "So..uh..what do you want to do?"

"Teach us how to play that game you challenged Malfoy to," Hannah spoke up. "What was it called?"

"Baseball." And so he sat down and explained the rules to them. After a lengthy briefing, they were ready to play. They divided into teams of seven apiece, with Eddie joining the Hufflepuffs and Lily remaining on the Fateful Eight's side. Tom, who was a huge Star Wars nerd, immediately shouted at Eddie in his best Ewan McGregor voice, "You were supposed to destroy the Sith, not join them!" in reference to Obi-Wan Kenobi's line from his climactic battle with Anakin Skywalker in _Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith_. To which Eddie laughed. The game was a back-and forth affair, with the Fateful Eight winning, 8-7. After that, they sat around and played wizard's chess. Overall, it was a very fun night.

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As the days ticked down to September the first, they soon realized that they needed to go to Diagon Alley and try to stop Lucius Malfoy from giving Ginny the diary. As it turned out, they picked the perfect day to arrive, but of course they didn't know that yet.

They got their school supplies quickly, and waited in Flourish and Blotts for the Malfoys to arrive. As Lockhart's entorauge arrived, the Fateful Eight squeezed against the shelves so that they could pass by. Soon after, Lucius Malfoy strolled into the shop, an air of dominance about him. Then too, Arthur Weasley arrived with his family, and Eddie was ready. He stayed mostly in the shadows while they discussed work, then Lucius noticed him.

"Ah. If it isn't Mr…..Pattinson?" he asked and looked at Draco, who nodded. "Yes, Draco's told me all about you..and your parents. Where are they, incidentally?"

"Dead. They were killed in the New Salem riots of 1988," Eddie said smoothly, surprised at the efficiency with which he had come up with this lie.

"Ah. My condolences…" Lucius said, however wth no sympathy in his eyes. As he was doing so, Eddie noticed him slip the diary into Ginny's bag.

"Mr. Malfoy?" Eddie asked him.

"Yes, Pattinson?" he replied lazily.

"May I ask why you're slipping that book into that girl's bag?"

Malfoy put on a look of mock surprise. "Ah, I wasn't paying attention to my hand. I'm terribly sorry, Miss Weasley."

Ginny blinked. "That's all right."

Eddie thought he succeeded, but then Mr. Weasley stormed over.

"What were you putting into my daughter's bag, Malfoy?" he asked angrily.

"As I have told Mr. Patson here-"

"Pattinson," Eddie corrected.

"-it was merely an accident. Perhaps you should return to the Ministry, Arthur, all those raids..I do hope they're paying you overtime. But-" he held up Ginny's copy of A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration and spat, "evidently not."

At these words, Mr. Weasley forgot everything and charged at Mr. Malfoy, book-style. Eddie and the rest backed away, and when the dust had cleared, Riddle's diary was laying on the floor, Mr. Weasley had a black eye, and Mr. Malfoy a swollen lip. Eddie noticed Ginny scoop the diary into her bag and leave. He held out a hand to stop her, but Lily put it down.

"Leave it," she whispered in his ear. "There's no point now."

Eddie turned to Tom, looking stricken. "I guess the Chamber will be opened again after all."

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On September first, they all marched through the barrier, no problem. Guess Dobby didn't care if they went back to Hogwarts or not, Eddie thought and snorted. When they sat down, they immediately revised their plans to defeat the basilisk.

"How can we get into the Chamber? There's not a single Parselmouth at Hogwarts." Tom asked them

"We can try," Claire offered. "Remember Ron did?" She then attempted Parseltounge of her own, which wasn't as natural as Harry's, but it could work.

"Another order of buisness," Eddie snapped, addressing the girls. "Please don't fawn over Lockhart, you four…"

"We won't…" Lily assured him "We know he's a fraud."

"Alright, just making sure.."

_Can't wait for another year…._

A/N I know this was short, but it's 12:43 am and I really wanted to finish this tonight. I know it's been awhile. Enjoy.


	14. Jealousy

When they arrived at the station, they clambered into the carriages. None of them could see, but they knew the carriages were pulled by thestrals, invisible horses one can only see if one has seen death. Gratefully, none of them had. They continued their fervent discussion about Ginny and the diary.

"I can sneak down to the first year's dorms and try to get it, seeing as I'm the only one who can," Natalie suggested.

Sean looked deep in thought.  
"What about you Sean?" Eddie asked. "Got any ideas?"

"I say let it happen," Sean said, finally coming out of his reverie. "Easiest way to catch him."

"Alright, that's fair…All in favor?" Six of them raised their hands, with the exception of Natalie, Lily, and Victoria. "Motion passed."

They got to the castle and sat down in the Great Hall, awaiting the Sorting Hat's song for 1992. They hadn't seen this one, as Harry (and Ron) missed the song and subsequent feast due to them flying a car to Hogwarts.

The hat opened its brim-

"Be you short or tall,

Large or small,

I am the hat

That is here to sort you all.

I am here to choose the table

Where you will be sat.

For I am the one, the only,

Hogwarts Sorting Hat!"

Smart Ravenclaw, bright and clever,

was on the ball,

She took the quick and able,

One and all,

Cunning Slytherin, shrewd and witty, felt Muggle-borns didn't belong.

His belief was potent.

He wanted those of blood only pure and strong,

Only those with a good magic quotient.

Bold Gryffindor, brave and stubborn, was audacious,

True to his nobility and daring,

He wanted only the courageous,

To save us from our failing.

Kind Hufflepuff, caring and considerate,

Not adverse to diversity,

Was full of warmth and fun!

She took the miscellany,

She wanted each and every one!

These four great houses stand apart

But this should not be the case.

So put me on, look to your heart!

To see where is your place!"

They clapped with the whole hall as the hat finished. The first new student went to Hufflepuff, which pleased Eddie and Lily. Then, as expected, Colin Creevey was placed in Gryffindor, Luna Lovegood was placed in Ravenclaw, and Ginny in Gryffindor. When she sat down, they noticed Ron was there, congratulating her. Clearly Dobby had not blocked him from the barrier this time. Eddie snorted, as this mean there was no Howler to look forward to. So with the sorting out of the way, they turned their attention to the feast. When it was finished, Dumbledore got up to speak.

"Welcome to another year at Hogwarts!" he shouted to the school. "Before any other announcements can be made, I must welcome our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Gilderoy Lockhart!"

Lockhart stood up, beamed widely at them all, and took a huge bow. The applause was mixed for him. While many of the girls swooned, the boys gave him suspicious looks. Eddie just rolled his eyes.

He looked over at Hannah nervously, and wasn't at all pleased to see that she was one of the many girls staring at the fraud of a professor with dream-like eyes. Something had changed with him over the summer, as he had hung out with the rest of the Hufflepuffs and gotten to know them more..was it a crush? No, it couldn't be…he just didn't like the idea of her idolizing a liar and a manipulator. Yes, that was it..

_But_, said a mischeivous voice in his head, _I don't see you thinking of Susan or Megan that way.._

_Shut up_, he told it.

While he was lost in thought, Dumbledore finished his announcements. Justin nudged him gently as they got up to leave, clearly, the headmaster had dismissed the school.

Eddie trotted up to bed, head swimming.

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A few days after that, they had their first Defense Against the Dark Arts class. Eddie groaned initially at the prospect of having to take Lockhart's frivolous "quiz", but then he thought he'd entertain himself with the questions.

Lockhart waltzed into the room, his pearly white teeth sparkling in the sunlight.

"Let me introduce you to your newest Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher!" he boasted pompously. "Me." He looked around at them all. "Gilderoy Lockart…..Order of Merlin..Third class. Honorary member of the Dark Force Defense League...and five time winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile award. But I don't talk about that, of course. I didn't get rid of the Bandon Banshee by smiling at him." He chuckled at his little joke.

He went on to tell the class where exactly in Break with a Banshee they could find his "thrilling" tale of how he actually performed his "spectacular" feat, but Eddie wasn't listening. He was reaching into his bag for a new quill, as he'd snapped it when Hannah giggled at Lockhart's poor excuse for comedy. Now in a fouler mood than usual, he straightened up in his chair, eyes on the witless Ravenclaw that somehow became a teacher.

The ill feelings abated, however, when Lockhart passed the quiz out, and he saw the questions. He himself had trouble stifling a laugh. Lockhart looked at him.

"Something amusing, Mr. Pattinson?" he asked sharply.

"Ah, sorry, Professor," Eddie fabricated. "I just recollected your joke from page seventy three in _Travels with Trolls_…" He _had_, in fact, done some reading of Lockhart's material, just to have a laugh when he was bored.

"Oh!" said Lockhart, not catching on to Eddie's sarcasm. "Yes, that was one of my _favorites_…" he reminisced. "You enjoyed it?" he asked him eagerly.

"Oh, yes!" Eddie said, smiling. "You're such a fantastic wizard!"

"Why, thank you! You flatter me!" Lockhart replied. He really _was_ an idiot.

Eddie turned his attention to the quiz after that.

_What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favorite color_...he remembered that was lilac. W_hat is Gilderoy Lockhart's secret ambition_….that was something to do with ridding the world of evil and starting a...hair care potion buisness? That would have to do. _How many times has Gilderoy Lockhart won Witch Weekly's._..Five, he had just bragged to the class, hadn't he?

The other questions he decided to have a little fun.

_What, in your opinion, is Gilderoy Lockhart's greatest achievement to date? _Hitting a grand slam home run to win the World Series.

_Which is Gilderoy Lockhart's best side for photographs?_ Dunno, he takes too many to figure out a "best one."

_Has Gilderoy Lockhart ever won the Dunstable Duelling Championship for wizards or just been pipped at the post?_ No, but he is still the best dueler ever named Gilderoy Lockhart.

_Which product does Gilderoy Lockhart use to clean his teeth with to achieve his famous dazzling white smile?_ Colgate toothpaste.

_Which is the person name which Gilderoy Lockhart has given to his broomstick?_ Gilderoy.

_When is Gilderoy Lockhart's birthday and what would his ideal gift be?_ January 26 (which Eddie answered correctly), and to have more awards.

When time was up, he passed up the quiz. Lockhart told everyone that he was sure they did a fantastic job, and that he'd look at them later. He then climbed up on the desk, which confused the class.

"Now be warned," he told them all dramatically. "It is my job to arm you against the foulest creatures known to wizardkind." Eddie rolled his eyes. The pixies. Here we go.

"You may find yourselves facing your worst fears in this room. Know only that no harm can befall you whilst I am here. I must ask you not to scream. It might...provoke them!" He lifted off the tattered blue cover of the cage.

Lily laughed. "Cornish pixies!" she exclaimed, playing the role of Seamus.

"Freshly caught Cornish pixies!" Lockhart told her. "Laugh if you will, Miss Jackson, but be careful. Devilishly tricky little blighters. Let's see what you make of them!" And with that, he released the pixies.

After they had rounded up all the pixies and stuffed them safely back in to their cages, they had to dismiss themselves, because Lockhart had left the room in fear. And as Eddie left, he eyed Hannah anxiously, who was chatting animatedly about what a fun lesson they had just had with Susan and Megan. He then steeled himself to look anywhere but at her until they had reached their dormitory.

A/N YES I know it's been awhile. I'm sorry. I was too lazy to write for much of the Christmas holidays, plus I had writers block. But, hey, I'm back so enjoy. Happy New Decade! I know the chapter's shorter than usual, but I don't think the next thing I have planned can fit without this thing going an insane amout of words. Next chapter will be bigger, I promise.


	15. The Writing on the Wall

As they settled back down for another year, Eddie was increasingly anxious trying to figure out his feelings for Hannah. He hadn't ever felt like that before, in either universe. Sure, he'd had a few crushes here and there, but nothing like he felt in that classroom. He had felt pure jealousy. Eddie wasn't scared he'd lose Hannah to Lockhart, of course, that would be absurd. No, his thoughts were if he really loved Hannah or it was just a mere infatuation.

Before he or the rest of the Fateful Eight knew it, it was Halloween, and they all knew what was upon them. The first basilisk attack. He had warned the rest of the Hufflepuffs in his year about it, and they were shell shocked, but they knew to keep calm and act surprised when they inevitably saw Mrs. Norris and the writing on the wall.

That evening, they all took in the Halloween decorations, which were stellar and amazing as always. Eddie saw Ron at the Gryffindor table lean over and say something to Hermione, who nodded. Perhaps they had developed a friendship even without Harry's help. When the feast ended, they started to make their way back to the common room but braced themselves for a pileup in the hallway.

Sure enough, the message was there. "The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir, beware." He started talking with Justin about it, and they both spoke as though they had no idea this was going to happen. Finally, Filch, obviously already incensed by the mass gathering, started jostling people out of his way. When he saw the scene, he was lost for words, as his face turned white. He finally spoke again, but his voice was scratchy.

"Someone's murdered my cat," he said over and over until finally he shouted at the crowd.

"Which one of you did it?" No one spoke. Eyes popping, the caretaker looked as though he was ready to beat the answer out of everyone, but then Dumbledore arrived, accompanied by McGonagall, Snape, and Lockhart.

"Argus! Argus, I…" Dumbledore too stopped speaking as his gaze caught the Petrified body of Filch's cat. "Everyone will please return to their dormitories while we try to figure out what has happened here."

As they weren't discovered at the scene of the crime, the Fateful Eight followed the rest, knowing the gist of the conversation that was going to follow between the teachers.

Eddie lay in bed that night, his head was full of questions, not all of them about Hannah. Riddle had specifically sent his basilisk after the people that Harry had argued with or gotten mad at. Would he change his tactics? Would there be new victims? And he drifted off into an uneasy sleep, wondering…

He awoke the next morning and decided to go train alone for his upcoming Quidditch match against Ravenclaw, ignoring all the chatter about who the heir of Slytherin was. He finally caught up with the others at lunch.

"Where've you been?" Susan asked. "We were looking for you!"

"Oh-" he glanced at Hannah for the briefest of moments, "training. We gotta beat Ravenclaw, don't we?"

"Yep," Justin said. "When's that, the..uhh... fourteenth?"

"Yeah," Ernie answered, walking over. He sat down. "What d'you think about that Lockhart bloke?"

Eddie just shook his head simply. "I don't like him." He leaned in and whispered to the rest, "He's a fake. He used Obliviate on every wizard that did what he wrote in his books. Come on, can you seriously believe _he_ did all those things? I mean, look at him. The guy can barely tell his wand from a twig."

Susan whispered back, "Yeah, that makes sense when you think about it.

"It doesn't matter," Eddie told them. "That's not our biggest problem."  
He then told them all about the Chamber of Secrets, and they were in awe as he expected. Justin had turned pale, like he was already Petrified.

"D-does that mean that I'm gonna get-you know?"

"It doesn't, actually," Eddie reassured him. "Small changes to timelines can have big effects," he said simply.

"Oh, okay." Justin said, and looked mollified.

The game against Ravenclaw arrived. Slytherin had beaten the Harry-less Gryffindors on their new Nimbus Two Thousand and Ones the week after Halloween, and of course, Malfoy was the seeker. Natalie was furious and at one point had to be forcibly restrained by Tom while hearing Malfoy gloat in the Great Hall the following day.

Eddie's team looked the same as it did last year, with one minor change- Zacharias Smith was now on the Hufflepuff team, replacing Patricia Stimpson, who had graduated, at Chaser. Eddie groaned when he had recieved this news. He hadn't talked to Zacharias for much of his first year, and for good reason. Zacharias was a pompous, arrogant brat who was far from exemplifying Hufflepuff House's core traits- loyalty, kindness, and hard work. Quidditch practices with him were oddly fine, though Zacharias was a bit lackadaisacal in the drills. But Eddie was confident in Zacharias' ability, and so they took the pitch against Ravenclaw. The day was rather windy, but at least there would be no rogue bludger.

Hufflepuff quickly jumped out to a 30-nil lead, but then Ernie got cocky and let in three goals to tie. Eddie was watching Zacharias very closely, to make sure he wasn't yelling at anyone. Surprisingly, he wasn't. _A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one_, Eddie thought, quoting Senator Palpatine in his head from _Star Wars: The Phantom Menace_. He liked Star Wars nearly as much as Harry Potter.

Eddie ended up with a solid three goals, but that wasn't to be the most remembered part of his day.

After the third, he was turning around, and almost in slow motion, he saw Nathan falling off his broomstick. Noticing the bludger fly past and tracing it back to Jake's appalled look, he put two and two together. Without any preamble, he zoomed towards Nathan's unconscious body and caught him with a struggle. He yelled for Terry to call time-out, who immediately did, granted by Madam Hooch.

When they touched down, Eddie told Madam Hooch he was going to take Nathan to the Hospital Wing. Zacharias flew down to dispute this.

"Oi, Pattinson, you should stay, we'll have an advant-"  
"Can it, Smith, just get back to playing!" he shouted, and walked off.

When he put Nathan down on the hospital bed, Madam Pomfrey came bustling in.

"Quidditch-" she said, noticing his robes. "Never liked that sport. Dangerous. Alright, what is it?"

"Got hit with a Bludger," Eddie told her. "Probably just a concussion."

"Alright then, I'll take a look. You can come back to visit later."

Eddie nodded, and walked out of the wing.


	16. Petrifications and Professions

When Nathan came to, he found he was surrounded by most of the Fateful Eight (thanks to Madam Pomfrey's six visitors at a time rule, they could not all visit at once).

"Well, whaaaa happened?" he asked.

"You, er, took a bludger to the head and got knocked out…" Eddie told him nervously.

"Oh, ok." He yawned. "Did we win?"

"Erm…" Eddie began. He turned to Tom, who nodded. Eddie hung his head, as that meant Hufflepuff had lost, but he cared more for the state of his friend than a Quidditch match. Nathan grinned weakly.

"Ha...we beat you just like the Red Sox….ha…"

Madam Pomfrey, who took this as Nathan muttering gibberish, chivvied the Fateful Eight (minus Sean out of the wing.

Nathan returned to classes Tuesday. Now, with Quidditch out of the way, the Fateful Eight's main goal was to prepare for the next basilisk attack. Eddie shared his concerns about the same people not being attacked because those were more personal to Harry. They agreed, and took a closer eye on each other, as Quirrelmort knew about them, after all, and they were to be prime targets for foiling his plan the year before. How much Ginny knew of them? Hard to say.

They went on their lives with a much more careful air, and before they knew it, Christmas was upon them. This time, they had done their shopping in Diagon Alley beforehand and were able to get each other actual presents. Eddie got Nathan a copy of _Quidditch Through the Ages_, and he gave Eddie his old copy of _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_, as Eddie had lost his. They had their second annual snowball fight on the Christmas grounds with the rest of Hufflepuff, and even spotted Luna Lovegood, barefoot, in the snow, sitting by the Black Lake reading.

Eddie asked Nathan how they were treating Luna in the Ravenclaw common room.

"Well, me and Vic, we've been nice to her, but the rest...not so much. Cho can be quite nasty at times."  
"Ah well," Eddie shook his head. He had hoped for a better response. Luna was one of his favorite characters, as they were both outcasts, her for her wild theories and strange habits, him for his uncanny Star Wars knowledge and obsession with Harry Potter.

After the holidays and when term resumed, Eddie held out hope for a basilisk free year, despite Ginny still possessing the diary. Unfortunately, this was not to be, as shortly after the Christmas holidays, disaster struck. And it wasn't Colin Creevey.

On the third weekend of January, while most of the school was out in Hogsmeade, Claire and Sean were finishing an essay for Professor Binns in the library, and as they were walking back to the common room, they happened to turn the wrong corner, and it was lucky they were looking at a suit of armor, for when Claire's eyes landed on the statue, it was met by a reflection of great, big, yellow ones.

Seeing Claire's body freeze up, Sean immediately looked away, and just in time. He dashed off the other way and went off to find the others.

Eddie, Justin, and Ernie were sitting in the near empty Great Hall playing chess, when Sean burst in, red-faced, sweating, and appearing to be on the verge of tears.

"What's the matter, Stephens?" Justin asked him as he ran in.

"Eddie, it's -" He choked up. "It's Claire. She's been attacked." Without even finishing his turn, Eddie got up and ran out of the hall after Sean. Ernie and Justin followed.

The instant they reached Claire, Sean gathered her Petrified body up and propped it against a wall while Eddie went to get Dumbledore and Madam Pomfrey.

When he reached the aged Headmaster's office, he met Professor McGonagall walking past and figured he'd ask her for the password.

"Professor!" he blurted out. Taken aback by Eddie's sudden exclamation, McGonagall stuttered for a moment.

"Y-yes, what is it, Pattinson?"

"Professor, I'm terribly sorry, you see, there's been another attack with the Chamber, and I really needed to see Professor Dumble-"

Without even letting Eddie finish his sentence, McGonagall walked over to the gargoyle and gave the password- "Acid Pop." The gargoyles sprang aside and Eddie sprinted up the stairs two at a time to the brass griffin door knocker. Banging on it, he got a greeting from the headmaster and entered.

"So sorry to bother you, Professor but.." he explained about Claire. Dumbledore stood up.

"Come with me. We're going to see Madam Pomfrey."

They reached the hospital wing, and Madam Pomfrey entered the ward, looking nervous.

"What is it now?" she asked Dumbledore impatiently.

"There's been another attack, Poppy," He bowed his head, with a grave expression on his face, and indicated Claire's motionless body.

"Petrified?" she asked, her face white. Dumbledore nodded.

They all left the wing in a rather glum mood, even though they had convinced Madam Pomfrey to allow the last arrival, Tom, to stay as the seventh visitor.

They were all gathered in the Room of Requirement after, and it was dead silent.

"So, what're we now?" Nathan joked weakly. "The Fateful Seven?"

"I'm not worried about Claire," said Tom. "Madam Pomfrey and Sprout are gonna have the mandrake stuff ready to go by the end of the year, it's just..wow. No idea that it was gonna be her."

"I did," Eddie spoke up. "Why do you think I had us go in pairs, everywhere?" They looked at him.

"I mean," he gulped, then went on, "we fought Quirrellmort last year, right?" When no one said anything, he continued. "And..Dumbledore told the school our names."

"But-" Natalie interjected, "Ginny doesn't know we fought Voldemort."

"No, she doesn't, that is true…"

"But Voldemort would know!" Victoria exclaimed, slapping her forehead.

"Yes, that's my point." Eddie said. "That's why Claire got attacked and not Justin or Penelope. We've got to keep looking out for each other."

They all gave their assent.

The calendar continued to flip, and soon enough it was Valentine's Day. Eddie always rolled his eyes whenever he reached this part in the books (who could forget the disastrous love poem Ginny wrote to Harry?) but now with his newfound feelings for Hannah, he was actually excited. Lily saw him smiling slightly after Lockhart made the announcement, and leaned in to ask why he was.

Eddie whispered back that he had a crush on Hannah - Lily was the first person he had ever told - and she nodded, looking back at the over-flamboyant professor now elaborating about his Valentine's Day surprise. He skived off Defense Against the Dark Arts and instead sprinted off to the common room and write his letter. Eddie figured he could do it during his free period, but he'd rather not listen to Lockhart. He debated on whether or not to write his name and decided on leaving it anonymous, as it was sure to be a cringe fest and he was scared of her reaction. It was written as follows:

_Dear Hannah,_

_When I met you last year I had no idea I'd have the feelings for you I do now. The way your blonde hair whips around in the wind, that radiant smile of yours, your bright, blue eyes, your fantastic personality, all contribute to said feelings. I think you're absolutely brilliant and I love you._

_-An admirer._

All being said and done, he rolled up the parchment and made his way out of the common room to find one of Lockhart's cupids. He handed it the scroll and said "Give this to Hannah Abbott," and made his way for the Great Hall, as it was now lunch.

"Where've you been? Hannah asked. "You weren't in Lockhart's this morning."

Before Eddie could answer, the cupid whooshed over his head, making his face tinge red. Te cupid dropped the letter on Hannah's plate and flew off, obviously to find more cards. Eddie sat down and stared hard at his plate of beef, not looking at Hannah, nor anyone else as she opened the card and scanned the writing. She blushed and put the card down without saying anything. Several tense seconds passed in silence, and then she immediately struck up a debate with Susan, wondering who this "admirer" could be. Eddie caught Lily's eyes for a fraction of a moment and nodded. She raised her head at him, smirked, and winked. Eddie finished his lunch quickly and made to walk off, but Susan asked where he was going.

"Um…" he thought for a few seconds, which, he later reflected, may have made it a little obvious that he wrote the letter. "Uh..Quidditch."

He strode out of the hall, unsure about what Hannah had thought of his note, but relieved nonetheless.


	17. Fighting the Good Guys

Over the next few days Eddie overheard some conversations in which Hannah was still trying to figure out this mysterious letter-writer. It had sounded, to Eddie's happiness, that Hannah had taken the note as a compliment, which was good. He'd also heard his name come up a few times. Eddie was on the fence about telling her that he had wrote it, but feared that she might not believe him. So he stayed quiet, and the days continued to tick down to his birthday, which was on the 24th, also Newt Scamander's birthday. Eddie had been overjoyed to hear that he shared his birthday with his favorite character, back in his old days of browsing _Pottermore_ relentlessly for information.

Did he miss his old family? Absolutely. Knowing the Bringer of Balance had frozen time in the "real world" brought great solace to him. But now he had found a new family, the Fateful Eight. With his burgeoning crush on Hannah, he debated if he'd ever go back to the "real world." Biologically, he was nearly fifteen, but here, he was merely twelve. The oldest of the group had been Tom, who was fifteen when he got sucked into the Wizarding World, and the youngest Lily, she was eleven, and didn't change her age at all. In between they had Claire (twelve), Sean (twelve), Eddie (thirteen), Nathan (thirteen) Natalie (fourteen), and Victoria (fourteen). So, a decent range of ages. Birthdays spanned the entire year, with Tom being born on New Year's Day and Sean on New Year's Eve. They often joked with him that the only reason he was in Slytherin was that he was born on Voldemort's 80th birthday.

Sean had, of course, faced prejudice from most of the school, as well as the rest of all those who wore silver and green on their chests. This had subsided somewhat after Claire's attack, but occasionally, some Gryffindors would make fun of Sean. At these instances, Sean still reeling from Claire being attacked right in front of them, would lunge at them and have to be restrained by whoever was with him. This rarely happened in Potions, as there was one rather fun instance where Seamus Finnigan got detention. He muttered "at least it was a Slytherin that got attacked." Before Sean could do anything stupid, Snape wordlessly immobilzed him, then strode two paces at a time up to Seamus and Dean Thomas's table, looking extremely dangerous. He put his face very close to Seamus's, then muttered very silkily and coldly, "Detention, Finnigan, and forty points from Gryffindor. If you ever make another joke about the well-being of a student, I can promise you, you will be expelled. Have I made myself clear?" Now sheet-white, Seamus nodded. Evidently satisfied, Snape continued the lesson, and Seamus didn't say anything for the rest of the lesson, even after class was over. Sean didn't talk much after that, either, and began to frequently spend time in the hospital wing with Claire. The others suspected he had a bit of a crush as well, which would have made him the third boy in the group- only Tom seemed nowhere to cracking. But that was Tom Hewett- professional, stately, buisnesslike. He seemed unlikely to ever develop a crush on Natalie or otherwise.

At this point, Eddie had told the rest of the group about his letter to Hannah. As expected, the girls were overly critical, saying he could have written this and that, while the boys- at least Nathan and Sean were congratulating him. They were middle schoolers, after all.

The day arrived- Eddie's birthday. There was also a Quidditch match that afternoon, Ravenclaw vs. Slytherin. Eddie went down to breakfast, and then they had their traditional Fateful Eight birthday party, which they did for any member, in the Room of Requirement, so they fooled around for a few hours until the game, which was scheduled to start at three o'clock. Sean

was to be playing against Nathan, and last year Slytherin had won this contest, knocking Ravenclaw out of the running for the Quidditch Cup. However, with Ravenclaw's win over Hufflepuff in the first match, and Slytherin's win over Gryffindor thanks to Lucius Malfoy's great wealth and "generosity", the two houses were both tied at 1 win and 0 losses. Interestingly, Malfoy made the team as a Chaser, one of the first major alterations of continuity they had seen outside of their influence and main goal. Whoever won the Hufflepuff vs. Gryffindor game the following week would knock the other out, assuming of course, no one got attacked and the season would continue.

The game started and Slytherin was the subject of much animosity in the stands, particularly among the Gryffindors. This was an interesting perspective in Eddie's view. In the books, it was the other way around (seeing how the books were written with a Gryffindor as the main character, it was natural to make the rival house "bullies". But now, given a neutral standpoint, Eddie could see the other way around.

The teasing definitely lit a fire under Sean's stomach. He was scanning feverishly for the Snitch, and anytime he saw even the faintest glint of gold, he would speed halfway across the pitch to get to it, failing every time. At one point he nearly knocked Cho off her broom , inciting jeers from the Ravenclaws. Eddie remembered a line from _Prisoner of Azkaban_. "Knock her (Cho) off her broom if you have to. Of course, Oliver Wood was talking to Harry in that particular scene, but Eddie thought Sean might be taking it a little bit too much to heart.

The score climbed higher and higher as Sean and Cho failed time and again to catch the elusive, pesky Snitch. Both teams passed two hundred points, then three hundred, then four hundred. According to Lily's statistics, it was the highest scoring Quidditch match in two hundred and seventy seven years. While Eddie was sitting with the five of the other Fateful Eight members not petrified or playing, watching the scoring bonanza unfold in front of them, he heard a very familiar Irish accent behind them snicker, "Shame his girlfriend isn't here to see this."

He turned, and sure enough, Seamus was sitting there with Dean.

Tom, who usually was more about schoolwork than jokes and Quidditch, (boy Hermione indeed) wittily quipped, "Oi, Seamus, how did it feel having to organize all of Snape's detention files?"

Seamus didn't say anything for a long while after that, and settled down to watch the rest of the game with a humph, However, when Sean missed yet another catch -Eddie joked to himself that this game for Sean was like the game when Ron let in fourteen goals for Gryffindor against Hufflepuff- Seamus opened his mouth again.

"Honestly, anyone else could play Seeker for this team. I'd do it myself, if it weren't for the fact I'd have to be in stinking Slytherin."

"Hey, you want to just shut up?" Eddie snapped

"Yeah, you're being quite rude," Lily added.

Seamus would regret the next two words he uttered.

"Make me."

And that was Eddie's green light. His mother had always lectured him to wait for the first punch, but his mother wasn't here, and he wasn't having it. His first punch knocked Seamus into a somersault, tumbling backward over his seat. Chaos ensued, with Tom and Dean getting involved. Fortunately for Seamus, the teachers still had their eyes glued to the match, and so the scrapple ended about five minutes later with all four boys sporting black eyes. Meanwhile, Lavender, Parvati, Hannah, Lily, and Susan were eyeing them quite nervously. Breathing heavy, Eddie decided the best course of action would be to remove himself from the situation. He dusted himself off, got up, and walked off to sit somewhere else and watch the rest of the game.

The score wound up to be four hundred and thirty to four hundred and ten when Cho caught the snitch. When Sean touched down, he chucked his broom about sixty feet then stormed off for the common room without talking to anyone. He didn't even bother changing out of his Quidditch robes or picking up his broom.

The following day, Eddie found Sean and tried his best to console him, though he was largely unsuccsessful.

He sat down at the Slytherin table. "Hey, Sean." He had his hands in his face, so that only his brown hair was showing.

"What do you want?" Sean grumbled, not looking at him.

Eddie put a hand on Sean's shoulder. "Hey. I know you're struggling all right, and I've told Ernie and them not to bug you. Well," he paused for a second and looked over at them, "it's not like they did anyways."

Sean's fist clenched. "I don't care. Nobody cares. If anyone had a brain, they'd know I would _never_, not even for a second, considering attacking Claire. And all this "at least it was a Slytherin" crap. I'm so sick and tired of hearing that nonsense. I knew everyone hated Slytherin, but this is a level I almost can't tolerate. It disgusts me. Just leave me alone, all right?"

Eddie nodded, and walked away. And as he fired Quaffle after Quaffle at the Quidditch hoops in the Room of Requirement later that evening, thoughts flashed through his head, pounding his skull. Claire. Hannah. The basilisk. Sean. The Quidditch match vs. Gryffindor. The fight with Seamus. All of it. As Marty McFly would say, it was heavy.

Sean found him the following day in a better mood.

"Hey, Eddie, what happened to your eye?" he asked. "I saw Tom with a right shiner too, did you guys get into a fight or what?"

Eddie wanted to ask why Sean didn't notice yesterday but remembered Sean wasn't looking at him. "Yeah."

"With who?"

"Seamus and Dean." Sean nodded.

"They were joking about me, right?"

"Yeah." Eddie nodded sadly. "No idea they'd be such jerks."

Eddie went to go get his eye fixed up from Madam Pomfrey. She questioned him on how he'd got it, as he was the fourth boy to come see her about a black eye. Eddie stayed quiet and just said he'd poked himself in the eye with a broom. He knew it'd be more trouble for Seamus if he told the whole story, as it would certainly get around to Snape. It didn't look like she believed him, but she fixed up his eye all the same.

On the first day of March - due to the Claire incident, Quidditch games were moved back a week - Eddie woke up super late and immediately threw himself out of bed and ran downstairs to breakfast, determined not to miss his own Quidditch match. He had a hasty breakfast and was almost outside when he realized he left his broom up in his dorm. At once, he dashed to the common room to get it, and slipped on some water. As he was getting up, he heard a noise.

The basilisk, he thought. Closing his eyes, he figured he'd get up slowly, and look at the ground to reduce the threat of him getting caught by the eyes. Wrong move. He opened his eyes- and he was staring right into a pool of water, and it was his unfortunate luck that the basilisk happened to be right over him - looking down. He was frozen instantly, and spoke no more, not even a scream escaping his body.


	18. Under Attack

The crowd was buzzing. Why hadn't they started yet? The Gryffindor and Hufflepuff teams were just milling around the goal posts, and Madam Hooch was standing at the center line conferring with Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall. They looked serious.

Victoria nudged Nathan at the scene going on below. He too, looked concerned.

"You don't think something's happened to him?" she asked nervously. "Eddie?"

Nathan squinted towards the gaggle of Hufflepuff players. "Can't be sure. I can only count six, but it can be any one of them, right?" He looked fearful. "Let's just wait and find out."

Minutes passed. After a quarter of an hour, they announced that there had been another attack.

The Fateful Eight's expressions changed from one of concern and fear to one of dread when Professor McGonagall whipped out a megaphone.

"This match has been cancelled," she addressed the chattering crowd. Oliver Wood tried to protest, but his pleas fell on deaf ears and McGonagall wouldn't hear it. She then beckoned the Fateful Eight to follow her. They knew what had happened.

She strode briskly into the hospital wing, with the six remaining Fateful Eight trailing meekly behind her. And sure enough.

Eddie, lying there, unseeing, frozen as though in stone, in a sort of odd position, bent at the waist, on all fours, like a dog. Clearly he had been trying to escape the basilisk when he was attacked. Maybe he had slipped and fallen on a puddle of some sort. Maybe he tripped. It didn't matter. Now, not one, but two of their family had been attacked, and they knew that Voldemort knew. They were targeted.

"Um, Professor?" Natalie squeaked, still in her Gryffindor Quidditch robes.

"Yes, Miss Rogers?" she barked, turning around to look at her.

"Um, is it all right if we go and talk to Professor Dumbledore?"

"Quite, Miss Rogers," McGonagall replied with the merest hint of a smile. Natalie beckoned the rest of them to follow her, and they did.

The Transfiguration teacher told them the password- "Drooble's Best Blowing Gum," so that when they reached Dumbledore's office, they could easily get past the gargoyles.

They knocked on the headmaster's door, and were greeted with the usual "Come in."

Natalie wrenched open the door and found the aged wizard facing the portrait of Armando Dippet hands clasped, clearly having been conferring with his predecessor. She wondered momentarily on whether Dumbledore was asking for advice on what to do, as Dippet had dealt with this situation in 1942 when Tom Riddle set the basilisk upon his students and framed Rubeus Hagrid. "Well, Miss Rogers?" he asked, not turning to face them.

"Um, Professor…" she asked uncertainly. "I'm...concerned."

"Concerned?" Dumbledore asked. "But you told me, last year, that the Chamber of Secrets situation would easily be handled. And I trust in my staff, specifically Poppy and Pomona, to come up with the cure. Pomona herself is preparing mandrake juice, and it will be fed to Mr. Pattinson and Miss Davidson, don't you worry."

"Yes, but…" Natalie went on, clearly exasperated. "Professor, Voldemort knows that we're trying to stop him. He had different targets in the books, obviously, he's targeting us. In the series as we know it, everyone survives the basilisk due to happenstance and lucky chance, what if one of us die?"

Dumbledore turned and faced her, and put a hand on his chin. "You make an excellent point. Very well. I will ponder this, and you would be best to return to your own common rooms. Off you go."

Natalie looked flabbergasted at being dismissed so easily, but she nodded and indicated for the rest to follow her out of the professor's study. While walking back, she was talking feverishly about how they ought to prepare for the next attack if there was one.

"Well, obviously, I can try to get the diary from Ginny so she doesn't attack anyone else. Do you have any ideas, Tom?" For Tom had his hand on his chin, as he usually did when he was thinking.

"That sounds good," he told her. "Because I can't get into her dorm. You're the only one that can."

So they agreed. Later that night, Natalie crept out her bed and downstairs to the first years' dorm, and took the diary from an unsuspecting, sleeping Ginny. As per the new rules, all students were holed up in their common rooms all night. It wasn't until the following morning at breakfast when they could meet again.

Over the next few weeks they discussed what to do with the diary. They considered asking Dumbledore if they could use the sword to stab it, but they didn't. They chose to leave the sword in its case, perfectly polished and shiny new for when they really needed it. The other thing they tried working on was perfecting Parselmouth. They tried to remember how Harry did it in the Chamber of Secrets movie, because the book didn't provide a good enough description. It was also annoying getting escorted from class to class by their teachers, especially Snape, who didn't allow talking, and Lockhart, who continued his usual charade of blabbing on and on about his "achievements."

Tom rolled his eyes. He couldn't wait until they were rid of that preposterously pompous prat of a professor. He then laughed at his own alliterative joke.

And so February became March, and March April, and there had yet to be a third attack. Colin and Penelope and Hermione were all well and good.

The Heir of Slytherin accusations had mostly disappeared around Sean, and had formed around Malfoy instead. Word was he was bitter about the defeat in last year's baseball challenge. The Fateful Eight - or the Subdued Six, as Nathan lightheartedly dubbed their reduced number, laughed at these interesting accusations, knowing the truth.

Hagrid had been arrested, just like in the books. The Ministry was suspicious about his involvement in the whole scheme, no changes there. And yes, Dumbledore had been removed as headmaster, though the six knew, it would be temporary.

They were sitting in the library one April afternoon shortly after the Easter holidays working on homework when Malfoy strolled up to them, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle.

"So how does it feel?" he flaunted. "To lose your leader?"

Sean looked at him, confused. "Do you mean Dumbledore?"

"No, I mean Pattinson. He's your leader, isn't he?"

"We don't..have a leader.." Tom told Malfoy, puzzled at his question.

But Malfoy was playing an elaborate game. "I just assumed he was your leader," he prodded.

"After all, he did come up with that "bass ball" game last year. And he comes up with all of your plans.."

"Actually, that's not true.." Natalie began to protest. "None of us are the leader. We work together."

"Don't know, seems like Eddie's the smartest, the best.." Malfoy went on, smirking.

"What are you playing at?" Tom asked him inquisitvley. "You're playing some kind of intricate game here, and I want to find out what."

"No, not playing, not playing at all," said Malfoy smiling. "Just trying to find out the leader here."

"Well, it's not Eddie," said Tom. "It's no one."

"But how can you function without a leader?" Malfoy asked innocently.

"We get by," Sean chipped in quietly.

"Ah! The Mudblood Slytherin standing up for his friends! Miss your girlfriend, do you?"

Sean stood up. "Get out," he growled.  
By this point the other five were on their feet as well.

"We have you two to one." Sean scowled at him. "Get out now."

A few of the others drew their wands.

"Whatever you say.." Malfoy snickered. "Assuming you're the leader, of course."

At that point they were making such a stir that Madam Pince stomed over and kicked them all out.

Malfoy was grinning from ear to ear as he departed with Crabbe and Goyle. Sean was breathing heavily.

"Thank God," he told them. "I was ready to punch that bastard like Eddie did Seamus. Man that was something."

He leaned back against the wall and sighed. "Guys..there's something I have to tell you." He closed his eyes.

"I…"

"Am Spider Man?" Natalie asked.

"What?! No!" Sean was incredulous. "Where the hell did you get that idea?"

"It's a line from a movie." It was in fact, from the recent release _Spider-Man Far From Home_, which released about two months before they were teleported to the Potterverse.

"Anyway…" he continued. "I..  
"Like Claire?" Nathan asked mischievously.

"How the HECK did you get that right away SHEESH?" Sean exclaimed. "Was I that obvious?"

"Uh, yeah!" Nathan snorted. "You always got super defensive when people made fun of her."

Sean managed a grin. "Hey, at least I did a good job of keeping it a secret." He coughed, and it sounded oddly like, _Victoria!_ She blushed and he smiled again. "You two dating yet?" he asked.

Now it was Nathan's turn to blush..  
"N..no.."

They bickered in good spirit all the way back to the common room.

A/N

I want to make an apology. I know I haven't posted in nearly a month, don't remind me. I was working on my Eagle Scout project, as I'm almost done with Boy Scouts plus fighting writer's block. The chapter was light, and probably not worth your wait, I apologize. However, I sat down in class the other day and wrote an outline for this story, and it should go around 77 chapters. Hope that appeased you all. Good day.


	19. Ripped and Sewn

Tom was in deep thought.

He was staring into the fire in the Gryffindor common room that night, reflecting on what Malfoy had said. They did need a leader, but he worried it would cause tension between them. Regardless of this, he gathered them in the Room of Requirement the following afternoon, after a dreadful Defense Against the Dark Arts class which Lockhart bragged to them all about he would slay the monster in the chamber single-handedly. Several of the remaining Fateful Eight members were rolling their eyes reminiscing on the lesson, and chuckling to themselves as they had managed to evade the bumbling professor escorting the rest of the class back to the common room.

"Okay," Tom told them. He took a deep breath and sighed. "I think Malfoy's right. We do need a leader." There was an immediate uproar at this.

"What?" Nathan sputtered. "You're going to agree with him?" He looked visibly furious, as did a few of the others.

Tom put up his hands to calm them down, which was smart, as outright war would have broken out between them if he had not.

"I know, I know, it sounds wrong to admit that slime was right. But he makes a fair point. If we continue to run around like chickens with our heads cut off, we need order."

"Okay, Tony." Sean rolled his eyes.

Tom looked confused. "Tony? Who's Tony?"

"Oh, that's right, I forgot." He stood up. "You're too much of a bookworm to ever watch a movie."

Sean sighed exasperatedly. "Tony Stark. In this case I'm referencing Captain America: Civil War, everyone else knows what I'm talking about, right?" He glared at them and they nodded meekly.

Now Tom was incensed. He knew it would come to this. He sarcastically asked Sean,

"Do enlighten me, oh holy one."

Sean sighed again. "In the movie Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, has a disagreement with Captain America over whether the Avengers should be controlled by the government or not, and this leads to the Avengers being split. _Meanwhile, the main villian, Baron Helmut Zemo, is trying to tear the Avengers apart from the inside, and he accomplishes his goal. Sound familiar?_" he asked Tom while gritting his teeth.

"But I'm not asking for the gov-"

"Not the point, brainiac. You and Tony both want order. Me and Steve- Captain America- disagree."

"Steve and I," Tom remarked unnecessarily snobbily. "Grammar, Sean."

Sean sniffed. "If you're going to act that way, I'm leaving. Annoying prick." He pushed the door open and walked away.

The rest of them stood there stunned. Tom was hurt. Lily looked like she was about to cry. Tom stared at the spot where Sean had been, then turned towards the corner and did not speak for a long while.

Sean was not at breakfast the following morning, nor was he seen all day.

When classes resumed Monday Sean came out of his hidey hole, wherever it was, and attended classes in silence, staring at what appeared to be nothing. He did not once fall asleep in Binns' class, he did not once roll his eyes at Lockhart's silly jokes, it seemed to the rest of them that he was not capable of emotion at all.

Uncertainly, Tom asked the other four one evening- Natalie, Lily, Nathan, and Victoria- if he could be the -for now unofficial- leader of the Fateful Eight. Natalie nodded slightly while the other three remained silent. Not one of them looked at him.

Tom adjusted his glasses. He was afraid it would come to this. Not saying another word to the rest of them, he walked out. Concerned, Natalie followed him.

"Tom, be reasonable! You know this is Malfoy's work, he's trying to break the group up!"

"I know, I just wish.." his voice trailed off as he sank back into his thoughts.

"Control. That's what you want." Natalie smiled at him. "I understand that, but you're going to have to not let Malfoy make up your mind. He's a devious little prat."

Tom nodded.

"Tell you what," Natalie offered. "I'm going to see if I can talk to Sean and tell him that you want to talk to him. Is that okay?" she asked warily.

Another nod. Natalie brightened up.

"Excellent!" She beamed, and hurried off.

When the weekend rolled around Tom was uncertain about what the day would hold. Sean had agreed to meet him at 4 o'clock in the courtyard, or so Natalie told him. He didn't eat breakfast, barely touched his lunch, did a little bit of homework for Charms and Transfiguration, and left the common room for the designated spot at a quarter to four.

Sean was sitting there, looking impatient.

"Have you agreed that we don't need a leader?" he huffed.

"Mmhm," Tom responded.

"Good," Sean looked satisfied.

"However," Tom began. "I do think this needs to be a compromise, if you'll hear me out."

"Ugh, fine." Sean said. "What do you want?"

"I think that there needs to be a system in place where we vote on things as a group. You know, count hands?"

"I guess that works," Sean agreed. "We were kind of doing that anyway."

"Very well, then." Tom stood up and grinned at Sean, and the two shook hands.

"Natalie was right about one thing," Tom told him.

"What's that?" Sean asked."

"The negotiations were short." He laughed and walked off, leaving a stunned Sean in his wake.

_Apparently the bookworm does watch movies,_ he thought.

A/N I apologize for such a short chapter but it was taking me a while so I figured I'd end here. Thanks!


	20. Dueling the Basilisk

After months of half-anticipation, half-worry, the day was soon to be upon the Fateful Eight, and with a reduced number to boot. The mention of exams by Professor McGonagall on the 24th of May brought something back into their heads. Seamus' outrageous reaction had not changed a tiny bit.

"Exams?" he sputtered incredulously. "We're still getting exams?"

"The whole point of keeping the school open," McGonagall lectured them, "is for you to recieve your education. The exams will therefore take place as scheduled, and I trust you are all _studying hard_." She spoke her last words with great emphasis. "Professor Dumbledore's instructions were to keep the school open and running as normally as possible, which means, of course, exams."

"There's no Quidditch, though!" Dean Thomas burst out angrily. A few of the other Gryffindors and Ravenclaws looked as they agreed with his point.

Professor McGonagall sighed. "Mr. Thomas, Quidditch is not a necessity. Twenty-eight of the hundreds of people at this school may participate each year, and that is not a worthwhile fraction for its reinstatement." He looked incredulous, and the class settled back down to continue the lesson, which was on the Softening Charm (_Spongify_).

And so the week passed with the Fateful Eight becoming very distracted in class. Natalie caused a bigger fire than she was intending to in Charms while they were learning the Fire Making Charm, appropriately. Professor Flitwick had to put it out himself and Natalie's hair got singed a bit. Sean absentmindedly accidentally cut too much off his Abyssinian Shrivelfig, leading to a stern chiding from Professor Sprout about paying attention.

Tensions were running high for the six of them, and soon they could wait no longer. On May 28th, they agreed that Tom and Sean (in honor of their newly repaired friendship) would go ahead, wait in the staffroom closet, and give the signal for the others to approach Lockhart's office. And so the two crowded in just before break, and waited. They couldn't see anything, so they had to rely on hearing the teacher's distinct voices. Fortunately, they could, as McGonagall's brisk voice cut through the air a few minutes later.

"It has happened. A student has been taken by the monster right into the chamber itself."

Then came Snape's silky, low mutter- "How can you be sure?"

"The Heir of Slytherin," continued McGonagall, "left another message, right underneath the first one. 'Her skeleton will lie in the chamber forever.'"

Madam Hooch asked for a name, and McGonagall chokingly uttered Ginny's.  
"We shall have to send all the students home tomorrow," she instructed the rest of the staff. "I fear this is the end of Hogwarts."

Tom and Sean heard the door bang open again. It was Lockhart.

"So sorry-dozed off. What have I missed?"  
They couldn't see, but they knew he had a stupid grin on his stupid face.  
"Just the man," Snape drawled. "The very man. A girl has been taken into the chamber itself. Your moment has come at last. After all, you were bragging last night that you knew where the entrance was."  
Several teachers murmered in agreement.

"I..well, I-" Lockhart sputtered.  
"Very well then," McGonagall instructed him. "We'll leave the monster to you then. No one will stop your...heroics."  
As Lockhart continued to stutter, Sean slipped a little and the cupboard creaked.

"What was that?" McGonagall asked suddenly. Tom glared at Sean. When they made no noise for the next minute, McGonagall turned her attention back to Lockhart, who had informed them he'd be getting ready.

After the teachers had left, Tom and Sean slipped out of the closet.  
Tom then gave the signal for Nathan and Victoria to go to Lockhart's, which was a paper airplane (like the Ministry had for their interdepartmental memos) and Tom had figured out how the spell worked.  
And so the pair of Ravenclaws went to Lockhart's office. When they got there they knocked.  
Lockhart was, of course, shoving everything he had into a large trunk in the corner. It was only when he turned that he noticed them.

"Oh- Mr. Turner- Miss Parker- I'm-rather busy-if you could come back later…"

"Quit the games, Lockfraud. We know you're a fake," Victoria interrupted, her brown hair flying angrily as she drew her wand. Nathan smiled a little and took his out too.  
Lockhart straightened up and turned pale. "How did you kn-"  
"Never mind that now, Fakehart," Nathan chimed in.  
"We know you're trying to get into the chamber and we know where it is. Come on." Victoria commanded.  
Lockhart looked momentarlily puzzled as to how they knew so much, but regained his composure. He drew his own wand.  
"Now, now," he said sleekly, "let's all just calm down so I can make sure my fame is int-"  
"Expelliarmus!" Nathan disarmed Lockhart with one swift stroke, knowing that they wouldn't have Ron's wand to bail them out.

Now even more pale, Lockhart put his hands up and looked fearfully at the two second years.

Nathan and Victoria, who guided them to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, where Tom, Sean, and Lily were waiting.

"Great," Tom greeted them with when they got there. "Now. How do we open it? None of us are Parselmouths."

Sean stepped forward. "Maybe if I pulled a Ron? Try to guess our way in?"

None of them had a better idea, so Tom told Sean to go for it.

Sean leaned over the sink. "Ahshash shien," he guessed. It didn't work.

After twenty solid minutes of trying, it cracked. The sink opened and they were all astounded.

Lockhart, making the same gaping face as the rest of them, turned and attempted to leave, but was blocked by Sean and Nathan and held at wandpoint by the entrance's edge.

"Now, boys, what- what good would it do?" he pleaded. They didn't lower their wands, so he sighed and jumped down.

"Well then?" Tom said to the rest of them, "Me next?"

None of them had any objection, so he followed Lockhart down the chute, and one by one they all hopped in.  
Lockhart was waiting for them at the bottom of the slide. When they all were past him, he tackled Nathan to the ground and wrested his wand back and disarmed Nathan and Lily before they realized what was up. Tom, being the fast thinker he was, quickly pointed his wand at Gilderoy and shouted, "Obliviate!" The professor fell back and hit his head on a bit of rock and was knocked out. Once they had gotten Nathan and Lily's wands back, they continued on until they reached the entrance of the main room. Sean used his fake Parseltongue again, which worked after about seven tries. Then, suddenly, they heard a rumbling.

Next second they knew, bits of rock were tumbling and falling to the ground. Four of them scattered away from the entrance, leaving Sean trapped.

"Help me with some of this rubble!" Tom asked the rest, and so they began to work on it while Sean was dealing with Riddle.

As Sean crept into the chamber, he noticed Ginny's motionless body lying on the dirty floor. He ran to her, but did not begin any attempt at waking her, as he knew it would be feeble. Riddle emerged from the shadows. Sean drew his wand but was quickly disarmed.

"I know who you are," he said quietly to Riddle. "You can't fool me, Voldy."

"Very clever, Stephens," Riddle smirked, his mouth curling into a grin. "But do you know who you are?"

Sean went pale at how Voldemort knew his name and said nothing.

Meanwhile, Tom and the rest were still struggling at trying to shift the rock. They had tried Wingardium Leviosa and failed, so they resorted to physical force and brute strength. Lily, who wasn't very strong, had taken to rambling off a list of Stanley Cup champions. Eventually, this got on Tom's nerves quite a bit.

"SHUT UP!" he yelled at Lily, making one furious pull at the rock pile. "I don't care about the 1963 Toronto Maple Leafs, all right?!" He noticed Lily was grinning, which infuriated him further. "What?!' he snapped.

"Turn around," she giggled. And so he did, and to his amazement, Lily had annoyed him so much he ripped a large enough hole in the rock pile. They all clambered through and into the main chamber.

Quickly, Natalie disarmed Riddle, and gave Sean back his wand. Now outnumbered five against one, Riddle turned to the statue of Salazar Slytherin on the back wall. He spoke Parseltongue, but they knew what he was saying.

"Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four."

And so out came the basilisk. They all shut their eyes, and waited for Fawkes while they tried to blindly fend off the beast.

Soon enough, the recognizable cry of Dumbledore's phoenix rang through the chamber.

"Ow!" Tom suddenly cried, for the Sorting Hat had just hit him on the shoulder. Riddle laughed.

"So this is what Dumbledore sends his blind, bumbling, defenders? A songbird and an old hat?"

While Riddle was taunting them, Fawkes flew onto the basilik's face and started ripping at it.

Tom bravely opened his eyes and he guessed right, Fawkes had already blinded it. Riddle was fuming, shouting something in Parseltongue.

While he was staring at the basilisk, Natalie yanked the sword of Gryffindor from the hat, and climbed up the stone face of Slytherin.

"NATALIE!" Tom screamed. "What are you doing?!"

She did not answer, her face screwed up in concentration. Then, she took a giant leap and landed on the basilisk's head, immediately stabbing it with the sword. This proved to be costly, as the snake flailed around from the pain. Natalie flew off and hit the wall, knocked out cold.

"NAT!" Tom shouted, but directed his attention back to the giant serpent now falling to the ground. Wasting no time, he ran to the corpse and yanked the sword from it.

With Riddle distracted, Nathan snuck around behind Riddle's back, snatched up the diary, tossed it over Voldemort's head, and Tom caught it with one hand, threw it to the ground, and plunged the sword right through the middle.

"NOOOOO!" Riddle cried, but that was all he could utter as he was vaporized into dust.

Once the last speck of him had disappeared, Ginny woke with a gasp.

"Wha-who are all you? I swear I didn't- Riddle made me-"

"Shhhhhhhh…" Tom whispered. "It's okay. We'll explain everything when we get to Dumbledore's. You're not going to be in trouble, Ginny.'

"But- but," she insisted.

"You won't be. Trust me," Tom assured her.

And so the six of them left the chamber, Tom carrying Natalie, they met back up with Lockhart by the entrance, and departed with Fawkes.

Natalie opened her eyes. "Wha-what happened? Did we beat him?" Nathan nodded, and Tom set Natalie back on her feet.

As they were walking to Dumbledore's office, Tom realized something. He grabbed Nathan by the shoulder and whispered, "What do we tell the Weasleys? They can't know we're from an alternate universe."

"We'll make something up," Nathan whispered back, brushing his blond hair out of his eyes.

When they reached the place, they met Professor McGonagall outside, who gave the password, "Licorice Wand," and they stepped onto the rotating griffin escalator and moved up to the door knocker. Victoria banged it once, and they were greeted with a "Come in."

They walked in, and the Weasleys were not there yet, so Tom walked over to Dumbledore and shared his concerns with him.

"I'll see what I can do," the headmaster said.

Soon enough Molly and Arthur arrived. Mrs. Weasley looked as though she had seen a ghost, with her youngest daugter covereved in muck and slime. The rest of the Fateful Eight stood there awkwardly.

Dumbledore addressed the Weasleys. "As you know, your daughter was taken into the Chamber of Secrets, and I believe you have the right to know why." Mrs. Weasley looked apprehensive.

"Earlier this year, Miss Weasley came across a diary, formerly belonging to one Tom Marvolo Riddle." Mrs. Weasley gasped, and Mr. Weasley's jaw clenched.

"How she came across such an artifact…" Dumbledore glanced at Tom, "is presently unknown, but I have launched an investigation, into how such a dangerous object reached the hands of one of my students. Now, going back to young Miss Weasley here. Naturally, her curiosity got the best of her, and she began to write in said diary."

Ginny looked too panic-stricken to object at how Dumbledore knew about what was obviously a well-kept secret.

"Ginny!" Mr. Weasley hissed at her, flabbergasted. "Haven't I taught you anything? What have I always told you? Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain! Why didn't you show the diary to me, or your mother? A suspicious object like that, it was clearly full of Dark Magic!"

I d-didn't know," sobbed Ginny. "I found it inside one of the books Mum got me.

I th-thought someone had just left it in there and forgotten about it — "

"Miss Weasley should go up to the hospital wing right away," Dumbledore interrupted in a firm voice. "This has been a terrible ordeal for her. There will be no punishment. Older and wiser wizards than she have been hoodwinked by Lord Voldemort." He strode over to the door and opened it. "Bed rest and perhaps a large, steaming mug of hot chocolate. I always find that cheers me up," he added, twinkling kindly down at her. "You will find that Madam Pomfrey is still awake. She's just giving out Mandrake juice — I daresay the basilisk's victims will be waking up any moment."

"So Claire's okay!" said Sean brightly.

"Indeed," Dumbledore assured him. "Mr. Pattinson and Miss Davidson are being restored to full strength as we speak."

"There has been no lasting harm done, Ginny," said Dumbledore.

Mrs. Weasley led Ginny out, and Mr. Weasley followed, still looking deeply shaken.

"You know, Minerva," Professor Dumbledore said thoughtfully to Professor McGonagall, "I think all this merits a good feast. Might I ask you to go and alert the kitchens?"

"Right," said Professor McGonagall crisply, also moving to the door. "I'll leave you to deal with these,-" she indicated the five of them standing there- "shall I?"

"Certainly," said Dumbledore.

She left, and they all turned to face the headmaster.

"Now, I credit you all again on your bravery. To know events that transpire before they happen is an amazing gift, and throughout the first two years of your education, you have used that gift well. You shall all recieve Special Awards for Services to school- Mr. Pattinson and Miss Davidson as well- and all of you recieve two hundred house points each."

They all were very grateful. "Thank you, sir," Natalie spoke up.

"Now, go enjoy the feast, while I take care of Professor Lockhart," they were told. And so they did.

On their way to the Great Hall, they passed a seething Lucius Malfoy. Nathan was struck by an idea and knelt down to pull off his sock.

"Hey, Mr. Malfoy!" He turned.

"What?" he snapped.

"Catch!" and he threw the sock.

Lucius looked at it for a second, disgusted, then tossed it over his shoulder. Luckily, Dobby was cowering right behind him and caught it. Mr. Malfoy whipped his hair and sniffed, and continued marching onto Dumbledore's office.

"Come, Dobby," he commanded snootily. But Dobby wouldn't.

"Dobby, I said-" he turned around and stared at the sock in Dobby's hand. Then, realization dawned on him.

"You've lost me my servant, boy!" He pointed his wand at Nathan. However, he was interupted by Dumbledore.

"Lucius, you wished to see me?"

Malfoy put his wand away at once and turned. "Yes, sorry, headmaster." He glared at Nathan and walked to the office.

When they reached the Great Hall, it was blue and bronze banners gracing the enchanted ceiling this time. Yes, Ravenclaw had won the House Cup.

As Dumbledore was making his end of year announcements, including those regarding Lockhart and the Chamber of Secrets, the double doors to the hall opened and in strode Eddie and Claire, who waved to the rest of the Fateful Eight before sitting down at their respective house tables, followed by Hagrid a few minutes later.

And soon, once again, it was time to depart. They boarded the Hogwarts Express, left Hogsmeade Station, and had a good time in the compartment on the way back. As Eddie was reflecting on his shortened year, he wondered what he would do about Hannah. He had indeed made up his mind that he liked her, but there was no telling when he would tell her that he had written the anonymous letter nearly five months ago. He figured the opportunity would present itself.

_Two down, five to go_, he thought, as they pulled into King's Cross Station, ready for their next adventure.


	21. Metal and Gold

Lightning flashed through the sky.  
Thunder rumbled.

Rain slapped hard against the cold stone walls of Azkaban prison, where Peter Pettigrew was sitting in the corner, cowering and murmuring nonsense to himself.

How had he gotten caught? He remembered that fateful day nearly two years ago, when he was taken by Albus Dumbledore and forced back into human form. He forced himself again, to relive that painful memory, as it was the only thing binding him to sanity.

"Mr. Weasley," Dumbledore beamed at young Ron, "may I see your rat for a moment?"

"Why, sure, Professor," the freckled boy stammered nervously. He went to grab Pettigrew.  
Oh no! He remembered thinking. I'm doomed, they're sure to catch me! He tried making a run for it, and managed to get out of the Great Hall before he was cornered. Once he was stupified, and carried back to Dumbledore's office, he was transformed.

Once they- Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Snape- interrogated him, discovered his plan, how he had somehow escaped and frame Sirius Black, they immediately summoned the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge. After the bowler hat-twirling politician arrived, they gave him Veritaserum, (which Snape had administered with a look of deepest disgust at Pettigrew), and he confirmed everything to the Minister he said previously. Fudge was shocked.

"But-how…." he stammered. "Merlin's beard...this is simply incredible..However did you discover it, Dumbledore?"

The headmaster beamed with a twinkle in his eyes. "I have my ways…."

Another lightning bolt flashed through the sky and Pettigrew sat up. It had been six hundred and seventy two days since he arrived here. The dementors were close to making him lose it altogether.

But through the lightning, another shape emerged- an owl. Pettigrew thought it odd that an owl could make it all the way out here.

He squinted through the bars in his window, rain pattering on his nose, when the owl squeezed through and dropped a letter in Peter's cell.

Bewildered, he picked it up, as the owl managed to get back through the bars and fly off into the night. He squinted at the handwriting, it was difficult to read because it was soaked in water.

Dear Mr. Pettigrew.

The Dark Lord lives. You can find him currently in the forests of Albania.

Escape, find him, and you shall be honored among Death Eaters.

You were discovered by 8 individuals with a unique gift, their ringleader Edward Pattinson. You can find him at Hogwarts.

Transform into a rat, and you will be able to escape that way.

Signed,

The name was smudged out because the water had almost ripped the bottom half of the letter apart. Nevertheless, Pettigrew had his motivation back. He was going to escape. He was going to kill this Eddie Pattinson. This letter had inspired him to do so. With that, he slipped back into his rat disguise, through the bars, into the rough waters below, and began the long, treacherous journey back to the mainland.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was a hot July day.

Eddie had his hands on his knees, sweating, crouched behind a tree in a rather intense game of hide and seek. With Hannah, Justin, Ernie, and Susan invited over, there was only two people left to be found- him and Sean.

Then a noise in the distance. It sounded like the snapping of a twig or crunching of a leaf. It didn't matter what it was. Eddie wasn't taking chances. He dashed out from behind his spot and sprinted in the opposite direction. He turned his head to look and- flop. He had tripped on something rather bumpy and fell to the ground.

He looked at the object of his self-embarrassment, when he realized that it was a chest.

A wooden and gold chest like you'd see in Minecraft or Fortnite, no less. Eddie smiled reminiscently at the games of his past life.

He almost called the others over, but decided to wait until Sean was found. Victory and treasure was a solid two-for-one deal. A few minutes later, triumphant shrieks rose up from a clearing not too far away. The game was over. He had won.

"Eddie!" Nathan called. "The game's over!"

"I know!" he shouted back. "Y'all come here, I found something!"

Eventually, the eleven of them made their way to Eddie.  
"Look at that!" Eddie pointed at the chest.  
"What is it?" Susan asked.  
"It's a treasure chest!" Ernie said, eyes wide.

"Well don't just stand around!" Sean said. "Let's open it!" And so they did. It was hard work trying to dig the chest out, but they managed it.

No less than ten thousand galleons spilled out of it. Their eyes gleamed. This was incredible. The Bringer of Balance hadn't told them about this!

They figured it was only fair to split their findings, so they each took nine hundred galleons, leaving the other hundred to Eddie, as he had found it.

But that wasn't all. At the bottom of the chest lay eight signed Hogsmeade permission notes, with the names of their real-life parents on them. Confused, Eddie picked them up and handed them to the rest of the Fateful Eight.

"Guess we get to go to Hogsmeade now," he told them.


	22. Truth or Dare

And so, with this exciting new discovery, the Fateful Eight eagerly awaited their third year at Hogwarts.

To celebrate their finding- well, Eddie's finding, but he considered it a team effort- of the surprise treasure chest, they decided to host a game of Truth or Dare after the other Hufflepuffs had left.

"Ooh, exciting…" Lily spoke up, rubbing her hands together. "Who'll go first?"

"I suppose I will." Eddie spoke up."Victoria, truth or dare?"

"Truth. I'll start small."

"Ah, well, looks like it's time for the mother of all Truth or Dare questions…" Eddie sighed, leaning back in his chair and glancing at Nathan. He had a hunch. "Who do you like?"

Victoria turned an amber shade of red. "Er- no one-"

Eddie had seen this before. "Come on..We won't make fun."

Victoria, if it were possible, went even darker. She sighed. "Fine...Nathan."

Nathan looked like he didn't believe her. "Wait, me?"

Victoria looked at him exasperatedly, then smiled. "Of course, idiot!" She gave him a playful punch in the ribs.

Now, it was her turn. "Tom, truth or dare?"

Tom happened to be reading. "Sorry, what?" he said quickly, hastily closing his book.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Truth or Dare?"

Tom thought for a moment, then decided. "Dare."

"I dare you to….say five factually incorrect things." They all knew that Tom loved facts, and hated being wrong. He groaned.

"Fine. Neil Armstrong was President of the United States, JK Rowling is an Italian plumber, the Nazis won World War 2, Russia borders France, and Harry Potter was born in midwinter. Happy?"

"Very." Victoria smiled. "Now it's your turn."

Tom chose Lily.

"Lily, truth or dare?"

"Dare, of course," she snickered.

"All right. You have to go one day without telling us a useless sports fact." Lily looked highly affronted at this.

"B-but.." she sputtered. "How will I ever be able to tell you guys about Japanese baseball legend Sadaharu Oh, who hit more home runs than anyone else in the world? Or how the Boston Celtics won 9 straight NBA finals between 1958 and 1966? Or-"  
Claire put a hand over her mouth to shush her.  
Tom pulled a stopwatch from his pocket.

"Your timer begins...now."

Lily huffed as he stowed it away and crossed her arms.

"Sean, truth or dare?" she snapped.

"Dare," he shot back unflinchingly.

Lily smirked, and Sean realized his mistake.

"Kiss Claire," she smiled. This made both Slytherins go red.

"Wh-wha?" Claire stammered. Before she could say anything more, Sean swept over and pecked her on the cheek. Awkwardly rubbing the spot where he had done so, Claire smiled a little.

"Alright then," Sean continued as though nothing had happened. "Natalie, truth or dare?"

"Dare," she said instantly. She had vowed long ago never to pick Truth in this game, she considered it cowardly.

"Hmm…" Sean thought for a second. "Run around the house until you tire yourself out."

"Alright, I'll be a while," she sighed, and took off.

Five minutes she returned later, huffing and panting with her hands on her knees.

Sean looked impressed. "Wow, that really did take a while. Anyway, it's your turn."

Natalie thought for a moment. "Eddie, truth or dare?"

"Truth," he said casually.

"Alright," Natalie smirked. "Have you told Hannah you liked her- in person?"

Eddie's cheeks tinged red. "Erm-no."

"Why?" Lily asked. "She seemed into you when we had those conversations in the girls dorm-"

Eddie blushed. "R-really?" His face was now nearly the color of his hair.

"Well, she didn't say outright that she liked you..but there's hope."

"Nate, truth or dare."  
"Dare!" he shot at Eddie.

Eddie grinned. He knew Nathan didn't fear much. "Go down an entire can of Coca-Cola. You have…" he pondered for a moment, "thirty seconds. If you fail, you'll have to owl Snape and tell him you love him."

Nathan paled, and chugged the soda in seventeen seconds out of fear. That prospect was something he did fear, Eddie mused.

Nathan then asked Victoria.

"Truth," she answered simply.

Nathan hesitated for a second before asking- "What- What made you like me?"

She blushed. "Well..it was a bit of everything, really...personality...humor...and yes.." she went redder still, "looks."

Nathan looked away for a moment. When he wrenched his eyes back to Victoria's, he noticed that the room had gone very quiet.

Eddie cleared his throat.

"Well-" he said, not meeting Nathan's eyes, "Should we just- leave you guys- alone?" he asked nervously.

Neither of them said anything. The others got the feeling that yes, they did want them to leave, but they were being too polite to speak up. One by one, they rose and left. Eddie winked slightly at Nathan as he walked out, which made his stomach squirm a little.

Victoria sighed and looked down at her feet.

"Nathan, I- I'm sorry.." she forced out.

"No, it's okay.." he replied, looking down as well. "I shouldn't have asked. Not in front of everyone."

Victoria looked like she wanted to dispute this but allowed herself a nod. Nathan bit his lip.

"So where do we go from here?" he asked. He looked at the calendar on the wall they were using to mark the days down to September 1st.

"July 13th…" he muttered to himself.

He looked up, and was slightly taken aback to see tears forming at the corners of her eyes.

"V-Vic?" he asked, not sure what was wrong. Before she said anything however, she threw his arms around him and held tightly.

"July 13th…" she sobbed into his shoulder… "T-that's t-today?"

Unsure of what to say, Nathan replied, "Y-yeah? Wha- What's wrong, Vic?"

She let go of him and sat up. Wiping her tears, she choked, "It's the day my mother died…"

"Ohhh…" Nathan felt bad, but he didn't exactly know how to handle this, so he stayed quiet and let Victoria collect herself. She sniffed.

"You..gonna be okay?" he asked with concern. She nodded.

"Are you going to be fine if I tell the others they can come back?"

"Yeah..wait...one question."

With one hand on the doorknob, Nathan paused. "Yeah?"

"Do you want to go to Hogsmeade together sometime?" she asked.

Nathan grinned.

"Of course."


	23. Flashback

The following day, the Fateful Eight went to Diagon Alley to spend their findings, but they didn't spend too much, of course. Eddie reminded himself that he still had five years to go at Hogwarts, and resisted getting a Firebolt, sticking with his trusty Nimbus Two Thousand. He hoped he wouldn't have a repeat of Harry's dementor incident. While there, standing outside Quality Quidditch Supplies, Eddie ran into a particular pale-faced, blond-haired old foe.

Snarling, Malfoy greeted him with, "Pattinson."

Eddie glared at him. "Malfoy."

The others had told him what Malfoy had tried to pull when he was petrified, which increased his dislike for the Slytherin. Through gritted teeth, Eddie informed him, "I'm no leader. None of us are. Now, kindly, leave us-"

He would have finished, but another blast of blond hair caught his eye behind Malfoy- more pleasing to him. Hannah. His stomach fluttered a bit, and he forgot momentarily that he was arguing with Malfoy, until Draco aggressively snapped,

"Alone? Is that what you want? You're a bit red," he smirked. "See someone you like?" he asked, turning around and craning his neck to try to find who Eddie had noticed.

Eddie didn't say anything. He knew Malfoy would use this against him, to harass him endlessly.

Malfoy smirked.  
"Not going to tell, eh? Well, I'll find out...sooner or later. I might even steal her-"

Still steaming and fuming at Malfoy, Eddie uttered two words with an iciness that he himself didn't recognize. "Go….away…"

Evidently satisfied, Malfoy turned on a heel and marched off in the other direction.

Eddie huffed, and stormed off in such a rage that he ran smack into none other than Hannah, knocking her over.

"Hannah! I- I'm so sorry!" he exclaimed, helping her up and pulling her to her feet. "I wasn't- watching where I was going.."

Very red now, he looked at her before tearing his eyes away. He ran before the situation could get even more awkward, leaving a very confused Hannah in his wake.

He reunited with the others, choosing not to tell about his encounter with Malfoy and Hannah, and they left the Alley, returning back to their house in the woods, Eddie's mind racing a million miles a minute once more.

_Is that what she thought of him? Some clumsy dork? If he was only paying attention to where he was going-_ Eddie hoped he didn't just obliterate his chances with her. He should have stayed and at least attempted conversation with her.

He was so deep in thought that he had been doused in ice water by Tom and Nathan, who had snuck up behind him. This made him grin and he pushed them around playfully. It distracted him, for now.

And soon, once again, it was September. It was time to return to Hogwarts. They decided to cram into Lupin's cupboard on the train before Ron and Hermione got there, which made for a tightly crowded space, but at least they would be safe from the dementor to come.

After the trolley witch had arrived (somehow they were able to get sweets without waking Lupin up, sure, three people was one thing, but eight was another achievement entirely) they were greeted by none other than Malfoy, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle.

"So, Pattinson," he sniggered, ignoring the rest, "Going to tell me yet?"

"Tell him what?" Lily asked, looking at him.

Eddie didn't answer for a second. He bit his lip. Of course, Malfoy answered for him.

"That he's in loooooove," Malfoy smirked. Eddie felt himself get very hot.

Nathan took his side. "So what if he is? It's none of your buisness."

Malfoy laughed. "Oh, when you're as rich as me, everything's my buisness, mudblood."

Crabbe and Goyle flexed their muscles menacingly.

Malfoy's voice got cold. "Now tell us."

"Oh very wise," Victoria piped up. "Threatening violence around a teacher."

His tone changed. "A- teacher?" He laughed. "What tea-"  
Sean, very calmly, pointed to Lupin. Malfoy paled.

"C'mon,' he muttered to Crabbe and Goyle, and the Bronze Trio slinked away, disappointed.

Eddie didn't say anything for a long time, and he leaned his head on the window, watching the rain pour outside while the other seven anticipated the dementor's arrival.

He had dealt with this in his past life before, of course.

The summer before he was due to start eighth grade, (which he never did), he had had a crush on this girl named Kate. Kate was smart, pretty, funny- everything Eddie looked for in a girl.

However, Kate had a boyfriend- Eric. Eric, among other things, would constantly pick on Eddie for liking Harry Potter.

And - there had been an incident between the two.

Though Eddie loved playing baseball, he wasn't very good, and Eric would remind him of this. Constantly.

Eric's team played Eddie's team for the Little League town championship - with Kate in the stands, watching, of course.

With Eddie up to bat and there being two outs in the bottom of the seventh and final inning, Eddie's team trailing one to nothing, Eddie stepped up to the plate with runners on second and third base facing Eric, who was pitching. To increase the drama, Eric had a no-hitter, despite walking two hitters in the inning and throwing a wild pitch.

_This is it_, he thought. _Winning run on second. Drawn-in infield._ All he needed to do was poke the ball over their heads, a la Luis Gonzalez in the 2001 World Series. He had watched the game a few times, being a Yankees fan, despite them losing the series. As a baseball fan, he appreciated it, probably because he didn't have to live through it.

To hype himself further, he ran through the commentary from that game in his head, changing it up slightly to make it a bit more personal.

The chance of a lifetime for Eddie Pattinson. 1-0. bottom of the seventh, game three of the New Rochelle Little League Championship. Second and third. Infield in. 2 out.

Eddie fouled back Eric's first pitch. He stepped back, took a deep breath. Two strikes to go.

The next pitch looked low, but the umpire called it a strike, which incensed him.

"Okay, Angel," Eddie muttered to himself. Angel Hernandez was a Major League Baseball umpire who was known for making bad calls, especially pertaining to balls and strikes.

Dan and Joey, Eddie's teammates, danced off their respective bases.

Eddie bit his lip and chanced a glance at Kate in the stands. She had her eyes glued toward the pitcher's mound, and Eric.

Suddenly, his mind became focused, and his head cleared. He took the next three pitches for balls to work the count full. He was going to do it, he was going to win this game, he was going to win Kate's heart-

Until he didn't. With glory so close, he got greedy. He swung and missed.

Ballgame over. No Luis Gonzalez moment. Eric celebrated with his teammates on the pitcher's mound, he had his no hitter, and he received an award for tournament most valuable player.

Needless to say, Eddie was fuming. He barely paid any attention during the postgame handshake line, though his eyes told the whole picture.

He trudged back to the bench, head down, confidence destroyed, when he heard a quippy remark from behind him.

"Did you see the look on that loser's _f__ace_?" Eddie glared. Eric's voice. "Honestly, I'd want to kill myself if I liked Harry Potter. It's why he can't play baseball, after all. He's got his head in a book rather than on a field. Loser."

Eddie knew that he shouldn't have bit, but he'd had enough. He threw his bat to the ground, completely oblivious to the fact that all the parents and coaches were watching - that his own mother and father were watching. He barrelled through Eric's teammates, reached him, and pushed him to the ground, punching him as hard as he possibly could.

By the time the adults had gotten there, Eric's nose was bleeding, Kate was in tears - he took one look at her and ran off, before he was corralled by his parents.

He received the biggest scolding of his life that night. His mother reminded him again, not to pick fights with people. His father offered no words of encouragement.

For whatever reason, Kate's head swam into view.

"Why...Eddie..why…"

Then Kate changed to Hannah...who changed to Lily…

"Eddie...Eddie...Eddie!"

Suddenly, the warmth of the day changed abruptly into an intense cold. Eddie's breath caught in his chest. The cold went deeper than his skin, down into his heart-

Eddie awoke with a jolt. Lily was looking at him with concern.

Eddie looked around and felt an unpleasant sensation, the memory flowing through him once more. He looked up, and the dementor was slowly creaking open the compartment door. Suddenly, the unpleasant sensation erupted into a total state of shock and fear. He couldn't move. He couldn't do anything. Lupin was on his feet, pointing his wand at it. A stream of silvery light which Eddie knew to be the Patrouns flowed out, and repelled the dementor. Lupin sat down and sighed.

"Professor!" Eddie addressed him, flustered. "Er- thanks. The name's-"

"Eddie Pattinson, yes, I know." Lupin smiled. "Dumbledore's told me all about you eight, and your gift. Now, you're going to need some chocolate, of course." He took an abandoned piece of Honeydukes chocolate, unwrapped it, split it into eight pieces, and handed some to everyone.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I need to speak with the driver." Lupin stood up, brushed past them, and walked out, leaving Eddie free to tell them his memory. He looked down when he had finished, ashamed.

"It's one of the things I took pride in," he said softly. "My cool head. I guess that day I just...lost it. Stupid thing to fight about, really, but-"

"No it's not," Lily said, perplexed. "It's called being human, Eddie," She smiled at him.

This cheered him up, and they resumed their friendly banter all the way until they reached the castle.


	24. His Worst Fear

Soon, after boarding the thestral-led carriages, during the start-of-term feast, Dumbledore addressed them.

"Welcome!" He smiled at them all. "Welcome to another year at Hogwarts! I have a few notices to give out, and I think it's best to get them out first, before this excellent feast can be served, as one of them is very, very serious."

"As all of you were made aware during a search in the Hogwarts Express, Hogwarts will be playing host to the dementors of Azkaban. This of course, as many of you are aware, is due to the escape of Peter Pettigrew."

Eddie was in shock. Of course… Why had they not realized on the train? Sirius was free! Nobody else should have been able to escape Azkaban… but Pettigrew did. How, though?

And why? What was his motive? Sirius' motive had been to kill Pettigrew… but Sirius was not at Hogwarts for Peter to return the favor…

Eddie slipped into another one of his deep, musing thoughts for a long while until Lily snapped her fingers in his face. Dumbledore's speech was over.

Eddie sighed and got up, still shaken by that news.

The following afternoon, it was time for their first Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson, which was their last class of the day.

Eddie was excited, but then he remembered as soon as he walked in.

They would be having the class with the Slytherins. The lesson was on boggarts. Malfoy would be able to see his worst fear and exploit it. He became very, very silent.

Meanwhile, Lupin introduced himself to the class at large, and requested them to put their wands back in their bags, as they would not be needing them. With some forewarning on what was to come, Eddie had not bothered to take his out to begin with.

Eddie was momentarily distracted when they rounded a corner and they found Peeves, who was currently stuffing a keyhole with gum.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Peeves," Lupin said pleasantly, like a parent who wanted to yell but was a very mild-mannered person. "Mr. Filch won't be able to get to his brooms."

This was, of course, ignored by the poltergeist, so Lupin drew his wand, pointed it at Peeves, and said, "Waddiwasi!" The gum zoomed up, and into Peeves' nose. He floated away, snarling.

When they reached the staffroom Lupin proceeded to talk about the boggart and what it did, and fear slipped over Eddie again. He took a few quick glances first at Malfoy, who was paying Lupin no attention whatsoever and was instead locked in a conversation with Crabbe and Goyle, then at Hannah, who was listening attentively. He shivered.

Soon, they all got into line. Eddie shot for the back at first, but curiosity got the better of him and he was able to shunt himself forward a few places. Lily was at the front with Claire, and Sean all the way in the back.

Lily was the first of the four to go, and her boggart was - interesting to say the least. A mirror had appeared and in it, different sports stadiums could be reflected, but they were empty.

"A world without sports…" she muttered to herself, and stood there, frozen for a second, but she drew her wand, and bellowed- Riddiklus! And so it changed, into pictures of vibrant, happy, stadium crowds.

Claire was next, and her boggart was simply a rat. Claire changed it to a dog, which barked. Interesting, Eddie thought, considering that one had just escaped. He chuckled to himself. A brief moment of respite for what was to come.

One by one, they proceeded through the line, until it reached Eddie. Nervously, he stepped forward.

He stared into the eyes of Susan's boggart (a zombie which was doing a tap dance) and took a deep breath. The boggart changed, Eddie closed his eyes, gathering himself….

It was Hannah. Eddie was confused, why would he be scared of her? His question was answered when a second figure materialized behind her - Malfoy… of course. Of course. Out of all the boggarts in the world… but that wasn't even the worst part of it.

Boggart-Malfoy pulled Boggart-Hannah towards him, and the two kissed, inflaming Eddie, but at the same time, he wanted to curl up and disappear. He could only imagine what Hannah thought right now, and his heart sank lower. He mustered up the courage, and cried- Riddikulus! Boggart-Malfoy slipped and fell, which made some of the class laugh and the boggart changed. He stepped aside, but then froze.

Hannah was very red, and Malfoy had doubled over laughing. He took one look at the pair of them, and did the only thing he could think of. He ran. Ran as far away as he could, to the common room, which was thankfully empty, and threw himself face first into the couch, crying.

He sat up and took a deep breath. He'd embarrassed himself. Is that what he was? A coward?

Meanwhile, back in the staffroom, the class was in a state of total shock.

"Erm- Professor?" Hannah piped up, very weakly and very flustered. "Is it all right if I go look for him?" Lupin, very sympathetically, let Hannah go, and the class proceeded to rifle through the remaining boggarts.

"Yeah, that's right, Abbott." Malfoy muttered low enough for Hannah to hear but not Lupin, "Go look for your boyfriend," he leered.

"Oh, shove off, Malfoy," she snapped at him, and she stormed out of the staffroom.

When Hannah entered the common room, she found Eddie with his head in his hands. She quietly sat next to him and bit her lip, waiting for him to notice her.

Eventually, Eddie sat up. Still not looking at Hannah, he croaked, "What?"

"Oh-nothing," she said quickly, "Are you all right?"

Eddie nodded. "Well, now you know."

"Know what?" asked Hannah, confused.

"That it was me who wrote the letter," Eddie explained.

"Ohh…" There was a very awkward pause. "Well, I had a feeling it might be you."

"Really?" Eddie looked up. "I - didn't know I was that obvious…"

"Well, you weren't… mostly. Remember when I got the letter, you wouldn't look at me."

"Ohh yeah…" he shifted uncomfortably.

"Well, it was nice, what you wrote…"

"Oh - thanks."

They both sat there in silence, with nothing but the fire crackling and the occasional bird twittering.

"Well- you're not- are you upset?" Eddie asked with some hesitation.

Hannah blushed. "Well - Malfoy was a git - but, no, I'm not upset."

Then, really quickly- "Quitetheopposite-"

Eddie was confused. "What?"

Hannah sighed- "Well, I like you too… Susan'll tell you."

Eddie blinked. "Really? I mean - if you're only lying to make me feel better -"

"I'm not," Hannah said quickly. "You know what - how about first Hogsmeade weekend we go together?"

"You mean it?" Eddie asked, overjoyed.

"Of course I mean it!" Hannah said, and smiled. "Now - we gotta go back to class."

Eddie nodded, stood up, and the two of them walked out hand in hand.


	25. Hogsmeade

As the first Hogsmeade weekend dawned, Eddie felt a flurry of excitement. Hogsmeade had been one of the things he was looking forward to most when he arrived here, and, as a little bonus he would have a girlfriend for the first time in his life. His relationship with Hannah, meanwhile, had not gone without the usual teasing from the Fateful Eight.

"C'mon, not Lily?" Nathan grinned. Him and Victoria had been dating for nearly three months now and it was a common joke between them that the two Hufflepuffs and two Gryffindors would get together, given that had been the way of the Slytherins and Ravenclaws.

They arrived in the High Street. It was a wonderful place, even more so than Hogwarts, in Eddie's opinion. He'd agreed to spend the morning with Hannah, and then in the afternoon join the rest.

He walked with Hannah for a bit, the pair not really knowing what to say to each other, the awkwardness growing more palpable by the minute- when finally, he plucked up the courage to speak.

"Err - Hannah?" he asked nervously.

"Yes?" She looked at him curiously.

"What was - er - going through your head when you saw that boggart?"

"Well -" her face tinged red, "I was quite surprised for a second - then I put two and two together and realized. But, no, I wasn't angry - it's quite normal to feel like that…"

"Only problem is that Malfoy was there…" Eddie shook his head. "Sorry…"

"No, don't be. Word spreads through the school like wildfire. He'd have found out one way or another. Speaking of…"

Malfoy was standing not very far from them talking to Pansy, Crabbe, and Goyle, when he noticed them.

"Ah, if it isn't the lovesick mudblood!" he sneered. "Abbott, really, I thought you had better taste than this - are you going to date every guy with a sob story?"

Mocking Eddie, Malfoy continued. "Oh, boo hoo, my girlfriend's going to get stolen by Malfoy - whatever shall I do?" Crabbe and Goyle snickered, Pansy laughed deliriously.

"Yeah, well," Eddie smirked, unfazed by this. "At least I don't need buffoon bodyguards to boost my already inflated ego."

"You dare _insult _me? Wait till my father -"

"Yeah, I know - go cry to daddy like you always do," scoffed Eddie, annoyed.

Hannah looked apprehensively from one to the other.

"C'mon Hannah… he's not worth it…"

And so they continued walking, ending up at the Three Broomsticks, bought two butterbeers and sat down at a nearby booth. Eddie was still in awe, looking around. Not to mention the butterbeer tasted even better than the one that was served at Universal Studios.

Hannah smiled at him, before delving back into talk.

"So you said… that in your world this is… fiction?"

Eddie nodded. "Yeah… it's kinda crazy… I still can't believe it sometimes… It's got a big following, you know… there's books, movies, theme parks, a whole host of things… this seems like something out of a fanfiction if you ask me."

"A what?" she asked.

"A fanfiction." Eddie told her. "It'll take some well-known fictional universe, like Harry Potter, and a fan will publish their own story about it. Most of them aren't very good, though…"

"Oh…"

There was a long silence, broken only by intermittent sips of butterbeer, when Eddie finally found something to grasp for conversation.

"Hang on… why didn't you tell me you liked me?"

Hannah shrugged. "I didn't know it was you who wrote the letter. And - to be honest, I wasn't quite sure myself…"

Eddie blushed sheepishly. "Yeah… I'm sorry… I would have signed my name but I wasn't quite sure how you would react…"

At around midday, they were joined by the rest of the Fateful Eight.

Being the only three not involved in a relationship, Lily, Tom and Natalie felt a bit out of place.

The nine of them had to occupy two booths, with Nathan, Victoria, and Lily joining Eddie in his booth.

Nathan grinned at the pair of them. "So, why didn't you make Hannah the ninth person on the team? Back in first year?"

"Oh, shut up," Eddie smirked, "I didn't like her yet."

"I see you and Victoria are going well," said Hannah, joining in.

Nathan laughed. "Nice comeback."

Lily, joining the fray, piped up, "Hmmm… battle of the lovebirds… would make for a great movie. I call being the director!"

Eddie leaned back, resting on the back of the booth, at peace with himself and the world, just taking it all in… he'd have never dreamed this possible three years ago… it was surreal.

The chattering continued, and too soon, it was almost time for them to leave. It had been a wonderful first day in Hogsmeade, a wonderful first date with Hannah.

Right before they were about to enter the castle once more, Eddie paused, walked up the nearest hill, and looked out into the sunset, Luke Skywalker-style. He smiled slightly. One thought flashed through his head as he let the fall breeze wash over him like a warm shower.

_Take that, Eric_.


	26. Bludgers and Blackouts

October passed into November, and it was once again time for Eddie to pull on his Quidditch robes for a match against Ravenclaw, for Malfoy had not provoked Buckbeak. In fact, they hadn't even looked at hippogriffs at all. Instead, they'd started with the flobberworms, with promise for "bigger" lessons around mid-November. Eddie only presumed that without the Golden Trio being formed, Hagrid had not felt the need to put together an "impressive" first lesson.

That morning was as miserably wet and dreary outside as it was in the books, and Eddie had his guard up, slipping his wand into his sleeve before pulling on his quidditch robes, as he was preparing for a potential dementor attack. He hoped Cedric would catch the Snitch quickly. Eddie chuckled to himself slightly as he could only imagine the speech Oliver was giving Gryffindor right now- he recalled a bit where Fred called Hufflepuff "pushovers". He smirked.

When they marched out to the pitch, Eddie could barely make out the spectators behind the haze that had formed. He could only see the house sections through colors- red, yellow, green, blue. He yanked his foot out of the mud with a squish, and mounted his broom, already chattering from the intense cold. Madam Hooch started the game, and Eddie almost forgot about it to the point that he nearly dropped the Quaffle when it was tossed up. Hanging onto it with his fingertips, he took off for the Ravenclaw end of the pitch.

The game progressed with the crowd being a low, distant roar, and Lee and Lily's commentary being warbled by the rain. At one point Eddie thought he heard Lee mention that Hufflepuff was winning 40-20, but he couldn't be sure. He had only scored one goal himself.

And then, he was flying along, trying to spot his teammates, when he felt a cold chill run down his spine. Sure, he was frozen so badly he was almost a human popsicle, but he recognized that type of cold. Dementors. He reached for his wand-

_Whack!_ A Bludger had snuck behind him and rammed him in the skull, but Eddie didn't know that. In fact, he didn't know much of anything at the moment. His eyes fluttered, then he slipped and fell, and everything went black.

Several hours later, in the hospital wing, he awoke.

"Uh…" he groaned, rubbing his head, "What happened?"

"Took a nasty Bludger to the back of the head," said Justin, indicating his temple.

_Ah_, he thought_, so a new take on how Harry's match could have gone_. "Did we win at least?"

"Ah, nope." Justin shook his head. "We lost by ten, I think." Eddie nodded.

When the team and Justin had left, he was then greeted by Hannah, Lily, Victoria, Tom, and Nathan.

Hugging him, Hannah asked, "Are you all right?"

Eddie laughed slightly. "Fine, I'm fine. But I won't be if you keep crushing my windpipe."

Relaxing slightly, Hannah let go of him. Straightening up, she said "Oh, well, I'll see you in the common room when Pomfrey lets you leave." And she walked out.

Hoping his situation didn't mirror Harry's too well, Eddie asked if his broom hit the Whomping Willow. To his immense relief, it hadn't.

He stayed chatting with them until Madam Pomfrey chivvied them off, leaving him alone, to rest.

In a few days' time, Eddie was finally able to leave, and slip back into the normalcy of the Hogwarts schedule, even if it meant having to endure Malfoy's taunts.

"Why couldn't you stay on your broom, then?" he leered. "Thinking about _Hannah_ too much?"

"You try getting hit with a hundred and fifty pounds of solid iron in the back of the skull. See if you stay on your feet," Eddie replied coolly.

November passed into December, the leaves ever so slowly falling off the trees. Now that they could make trips into Hogsmeade, they could get better Christmas gifts for one another. After much deliberation, Eddie decided on a scarf and a box of Honeydukes chocolate for Hannah, which she enjoyed.

They had a fun Christmas. Starting out with what was now a traditional Hufflepuff vs. Fateful Eight snowball fight, they snuck out to the Room of Requirement for a sort of sleepover, bringing with them cocoa and marshmallows from the kitchens. Well, it wasn't a planned sleepover, but seeing as none of them were willing to get up and go back to the common room, they ended up spending the night.

A/N I know this is one of, if not the shortest chapter I've posted, but it's my last week of school and I've been crammed with assignments, so this chapter was a bit rushed, I apologize. Good things are coming next chapter, I promise!


	27. Bad Dreams?

As 1993 became 1994, the Fateful Eight decided to play another game of Truth or Dare- but, at Eddie's request, the canon Hufflepuffs were allowed to join. Among the newcomers were Hannah, Susan, Ernie, Justin, Luna Lovegood, Neville, Ron, and Hermione. Eddie wondered how Ron and Hermione's friendship had developed, without Harry to keep them from bickering constantly. He supposed Tom served as the placeholder for Harry in these situations.

Starting the game off, Ernie dared Justin to take as much as he could carry from the kitchens and bring it back to the room. He came back five minutes later with two butterbeers, six cookies, and one cake tottering dangerously on the top of the butterbeer bottles. He almost made it scot-free when he tripped over himself and the cake splattered his face, which was good for a few laughs.

Justin brushed the frosting off of him, and smirked at Ernie. "Susan, truth or dare."

"Dare," she picked, not knowing what was coming.

"I dare you to walk around the castle for at least 10 minutes holding hands with Ernie, and you're to tell at least 5 people that you're dating." This made Ernie go red.

"Are you serious?" he sputtered. "_That_'_s_ how you're going to get back at me?! I-" he seemed lost for words for a second, which was odd, considering how much of a talker he was.

"Wait a hot second, I know what's going on here!" Eddie exclaimed. "You've got a crush!"

Stunned by this, Ernie froze. Then, he looked down and nodded.

He gathered his composure and inhaled. "Fine. Come on, Susan." Holding hands, he led a shocked Susan out of the room.

Five minutes later, they returned, very red in the face.

"So, who'd you tell?" Justin asked.

Ernie gritted his teeth. "The Fat Friar, two random Ravenclaws, a Gryffindor, and..Professor Snape. Hope you wanted twenty points from Hufflepuff." Justin laughed. "Alright, Ernie, your turn...

The game progressed with sparse excitement, as they were still fairly young and weren't too creative with their dares. Among the more interesting ones, Ron dared Hermione to burn her copy of _Hogwarts, A History_, so she wouldn't "keep quoting it all the time." To their amazement, she tossed the book in the fire with no words, and then, right as they thought she was about to lose it, produced another copy, glanced around at them, smirked at Ron, and read. Hannah confirmed that she was indeed dating Eddie, which made the auburn haired Hufflepuff blush.

Luna revealed that she hadn't had friends before Hogwarts, not fazed by it either, which made the room go silent for several very uncomfortable minutes.

They eventually lost track of the time. Eddie checked his watch and was startled to find that it was ten o'clock at night- three hours past curfew. They quickly decided to have a sort of sleepover in the room, talking late into the night, and setting up a sort of hammock system not unlike the setup from the Dumbledore's Army hideout in _Deathly Hallows Part 2_.

At around one, Neville's pillow fell onto Ron, who chucked it across the room and hit Hermione in the face, waking her up with a screech.

Sleepily, Eddie opened his eyes, realized what was going on, and got a bit of a gleam in his eye.

"PILLOW FIGHT!" he screamed, and mayhem erupted. Feathers flew and hammocks were dismantled. Eddie didn't remember falling asleep that night, but he did remember that it was one of the best he had at Hogwarts.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The following morning, they trudged off to Divination half-asleep. While Professor Trelawney droned on about planetary rotations and tea leaves, Eddie slowly felt himself leaving the sweltering heat of the classroom, and woke up in a totally different place. It was chilly, with metal walls.

"If you will not tell me how...then you will die…_Avada Kedavra!_"

A girl cried out. Then, the scene shifted. He was in the Hufflepuff common room. A very angry Hannah was glaring into his eyes.

"I can't believe you wouldn't tell me. I'm leaving you," she hissed.

"No...no...no, don't…"

"Why didn't you tell me, Eddie...Eddie...Eddie!"

The final calling of his name awoke him. He found that he was on the floor, in a cold sweat, again everyone looking at him concernedly as they had done on the train. Hannah was gripping his arm.

"What happened?" she asked.

"N-nightmare…" Eddie stood up, clutching his head.

"A nightmare?" Professor Trelawney asked inquisitively. "Or something...more?"

Eddie didn't want to hear this nonsense. "I just need to go to the hospital wing, Professor."

"Yes, very well…" she looked rather disappointed. "You may go."

Eddie left, trying to comprehend what he had just experienced. Was Trelawney on to something?

Or was it merely just a nightmare, induced by a lack of sleep and a humid classroom on a hot day?

Without watching where he was going, he ran into Malfoy, knocking him over. Before he could even realize what had just happened, two pairs of arms, undoubtedly Crabbe's and Goyle's, grabbed him and shoved him roughly against a wall, snapping him out of his daydreaming.

"Pattinson!" Malfoy glared coldly into his eyes. "What are you doing, hm?" A slight, wicked, grin crept across his face. "Thinking about Abbott again?"

"N-no," he answered half-truthfully, itching to get away from Crabbe and Goyle.

"Hmph," Malfoy looked as though he didn't believe it. "Boys!" he commanded the two trolls. "I think it's time we teach Pattinson a lesson in respect."

With Crabbe and Goyle flexing their muscles menacingly and knowing he was trapped, Eddie braced himself for the worst when-

"Draco, Crabbe, Goyle!" another familiar voice drawled. "Release Pattinson and get back to class at once!" It was Snape. Rushing over to the four of them, he quickly shooed the Slytherins away. Eddie thought something like fear appeared in Snape's eyes, but those wonders were quickly dispersed when Snape assumed his usual demeanor.

"And what were you doing out of class, hmm?"

"Er-" He wasn't sure whether he wanted to tell Snape or not, so he tried blocking his mind.

"Decent effort blocking me, but if you don't want to tell me, I must know, Pattinson. I can sense something's troubling you."

"Oh- okay, then-" Eddie stammered. And so he let Snape in.

Snape's frown grew with each passing second. He looked away and didn't say anything for a while. Eddie didn't leave, he was wondering why Snape was acting like this.

"This is not good…Pattinson, come with me to the headmaster's office."


	28. Musings of the Wise

When they reached the large gargoyle that guarded the Headmaster's office, Snape cleared his throat, and said, "Drooble's Best Blowing Gum," somewhat irritably. Eddie would have certainly found this amusing had he not been absorbed in thoughts of his own.

Not saying another word, they stepped onto the staircase, and it began ascending on its own accord. It rose higher and higher until Eddie saw the gleaming oak door ahead. They stepped off the stone staircase, and Snape rapped on the door.

"Enter," they heard. Snape pushed the door open.

Dumbledore was sitting behind his desk, evidently reading a letter, when the pair walked in.

"Headmaster," Snape addressed him. Dumbledore looked up.

"Yes, Severus?"

"I have a - concern - for the Pattinson boy."

"And that would be?" The aged wizard stared between them.

"Mr. Pattinson has been so kind as to inform me that he has experienced some kind of a nightmare - or hallucination."

"And what would this - nightmare - be about?" Dumbledore fixed his blue eyes on Eddie, which gave him the feeling of being X-rayed. He thought it was more amusing to read about than to experience, and he began to stutter while speaking.

"Er - firstly, I was in a cold room, like a prison cell, and I heard Voldemort - I'm positive it was him. He was angry that whoever he was questioning wasn't telling him how - to do something. I'm not sure what it was, but it sounds dangerous…" He stopped, not wanting to disclose the details of the second part of the dream, which was quite - personal. He wished with all his might that Snape would not mention it, and bit his lip.

To his relief, and surprise, Snape remained silent. Eddie risked half a glance at Snape, and saw that his face was as impassive as ever. He felt a rush of gratitude for him, and almost smiled.

Dumbledore merely continued looking at him for a while, then slowly nodded his head, linking his long fingertips.

"Most troubling indeed… is that all, Mr. Pattinson?"

Eddie nodded.

Dumbledore dismissed them. "I shall dwell on what you have told me today, Mr. Pattinson… and remember, when one door closes, another shall always open."

Eddie didn't know what that meant, but he could have sworn that he saw the old headmaster wink at him. Slightly taken aback, he walked off with Snape.

A few days later, Eddie was walking in the corridor following his lesson on Cheering Charms when he saw Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, and, most interestingly, Sean, huddled together, discussing something intently.

Confused as to why Malfoy was now accepting of Sean, or at least, well enough to engage in polite conversation with him, Eddie walked over, intrigued. Immediately, the four of them stopped talking when he drew near, Sean's expression shifting ever so slightly from one of interest to one of mild annoyance.

"What is it, Pattinson?" Malfoy drawled.

"Oh, nothing, just wanted to say hi to Sean. I'll leave you guys alone-"

But seeing Sean reminded him of something. He had to see Dumbledore.

Knocking once more at the gargoyle entrance after giving the password (still Drooble's) he entered tepidly, this time taking in all the unusual contraptions Dumbledore kept in his study.

All was quiet, other than the whirring from the machines.

"Er - Professor?" Eddie spoke uncertainly. "Are you there?"

Then he heard a voice from behind him. "Yes?"

Eddie turned to face Dumbledore, who was striding into the room.

"Oh - hello, Professor." When he didn't say anything for a few moments following this, Dumbledore chuckled.

"Ah, my boy, surely you did not come here merely to wish me welcome?"

"No… I had a question that, really, only you could answer."

"And that question would be?" The professor asked inquisitively.

"Oh - I was just wondering if I should be concerned about the Horcruxes…"

"Horcruxes?" Dumbledore inquired, perplexed for a second. Then his face cleared, and he said, "Ah, yes I remember now… there are six, are there not?"

"Actually, there's sev - wait - no, you're right," Eddie corrected himself, remembering that Harry was not alive, much less a Horcrux in this universe. "Five, now that the diary is gone. But I was concerned about whether we should be hunting the other five…"

"And why is that?"

"Well, we want to stop Voldemort from returning, don't we?"

"That is the intention… but it is inevitable that he will."

"What do you mean, sir?" Eddie asked.

"What I mean is that it is unwise to begin a quest so early. Lord Voldemort will be after you and anyone close to you as soon as he gets wind of such a journey. That is not a burden you want to impose on your friends, is it?"

"N-no sir," Eddie answered timidly.

Speaking more kindly, Dumbledore rested his hands on Eddie's shoulders. "When the time comes, Mr. Pattinson, you will know. Trust in your knowledge, and trust in your friends."


	29. The Quidditch Final

Months passed, and it was eventually time for the Quidditch final. Hufflepuff was out of the running, as was Slytherin, so a tense school eagerly anticipated the Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw match. Natalie and Nathan exchanged much friendly banter in the lead-up to the contest.

"C'mon, surely Victoria would want you to be a gentleman?" Natalie teased.

Nathan raised an eyebrow. "Scared you'll lose, so you're asking me to let you win?"

Needless to say, there was a lot of bragging rights on the line. Natalie had mentioned how tense Oliver Wood was at breakfast- this being his last chance to win a Quidditch Cup at Hogwarts.

When the two teams marched out to the pitch, a tidal wave of noise greeted them. About half of the crowd was wearing scarlet rosettes, waving scarlet flags with the Gryffindor lion upon them, or brandishing banners with slogans like, "GO GRYFFINDOR!" or "LIONS FOR THE CUP!"

However, Ravenclaw was not short on supporters, however, as there were many dressed in the house colors of blue and bronze, including much of the Slytherins. Eddie, Nathan, and Claire, not being affiliated with either house, did not show any allegiance, Eddie noticing that Cho Chang, who would have been Harry's future love interest, was now Seeker for Ravenclaw.

"And here are the Gryffindors!" Lee boomed. "Natalie Rogers, Katie Bell, Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinett, Fred Weasley, George Weasley, and Oliver Wood. Widely acknowledged as the best team Hogwarts has seen in a good few years."

Madam Hooch ordered Wood and the Ravenclaw captain Robert Hilliard to shake hands, and they begun the game.

As the fourteen brooms rose into the air, Natalie immediately started looking for the Snitch. Meanwhile, Nathan had grabbed the Quaffle and was streaking towards Oliver. Nathan tried faking Oliver out, but he was ready, expertly deflecting the shot.

"And it's Gryffindor in possession, Alicia Spinnet of Gryffindor with the Quaffle, heading straight for the Ravenclaw goalposts, looking good, Alicia!- Argh, no. Quaffle intercepted by Turner, Turner of Ravenclaw tearing up the field"

WHAM! The Bludger smashed into Nathan as he dropped the Quaffle. Eddie winced.

"Nice Bludger work there by George Weasley, Warrington drops the Quaffle, it's caught by- Johnson, Gryffindor back in possession, come on Angelina - nice swerve around Page- _duck, Angelina, that's a Bludger! _SHE SCORES! TEN ZERO TO GRYFFINDOR!

The match was progressing fairly well, neither team willing to budge as the score climbed higher and higher. Both teams reached the 500s by noon, and the 1000s by dusk. The crowd was restless. At one point, a Gryffindor sixth year almost fell over the railing trying to catch the Snitch himself.

"And you shall serve detention for two weeks!" McGonagall barked. It was clear the anxiety was getting to her.

"My knowledge is that if the game doesn't end in the next forty-five minutes, it could be the longest game in Hogwarts Quidditch Cup history," Lily announced over the mic.

Nathan had put on a furious barrage of points, scoring forty goals. Natalie, for her part, was desperate to catch the Snitch and end it. Then, she saw it.

Furiously, she broke for it. She said later it was the most intense she had felt in her life. Natalie threw herself forward, knocked Cho's hand out of the way, taking both hands off her broom. She dove for it and-

"YES!"

Her shriek of joy was heard throughout the stadium, and it was bedlam the moment Madam Hooch's whistle went off. Lily later compared it to the Mets winning the 1969 World Series in terms of crowd reaction, a sea of crimson and gold was storming the pitch. The crowd must have just been relieved it was finally over. Final Score: Gryffindor eleven hundred and ninety, Ravenclaw one thousand and sixty. Natalie hoisted the Quidditch Cup into the air. Gryffindor had won.


	30. PSA

Just a brief PSA.

I was reading back through the fanfiction, and it needs some work. I'm taking a few weeks to overhaul the dialogue and formatting of this fic. This doesn't involve changing the overall plot, as I feel that would be cheap. I'm just adding a few things here and there to add detail and expand where I see fit. In my opinion, the detail is the only thing lacking in this fic, and there won't be another chapter posted until I'm done.

This message will be deleted when the overhaul is completed.

\- ProudHufflepuff42


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